Tetenal C41 kit for B&W?

[mfohl]

Hello Folks, I’m posting this here and on the Color Chemistry forum. I am processing some film for a friend, and that film includes 4 rolls of 120 C41 film. There is one roll of Ilford XP2 and three rolls of Kodak 400BW. I googled “c41 processing Columbus” and only one place showed up. I called them, and they process color C41, but not black and white C41. I considered buying a Tetenal C41 kit. Has anyone ever used that to process B&W film? Are there any special issues?

Thanks in advance,

-- Mark

 

[ME Super]

C-41 is C-41 from a film perspective. No difference in process between color C-41 and B&W C-41. Printing, however, may be a different story, since Kodak's B&W C-41 film has the color correcting mask and Ilford's doesn't. This makes it easier to print the Kodak on the minilab, but the Ilford C-41 is supposed to be easier to print in the darkroom on multigrade paper.

 

[polyglot]

They're full of it and/or you got the clueless salesperson on the phone. C41 is C41. Just give them the film (XP2+ and BW400CN) and they will process it without being any the wiser until it comes out of the tank. What they won't be able to process is traditional B&W film, e.g. Tri-X or Tmax. If you put traditional B&W film through C41, it will come out completely blank, so don't do that.

As ME super says, printing is maybe interesting. Did you intend to get scans, prints or just sleeved film back from the lab?

 

[mfohl]

Interesting. As it turns out, the guy for whom I’m developing the traditional film said that he would take care of the C41 stuff; which means that I’m off the hook. But yes, I would have thought that C41 was C41, color or chromogenic. The lady I talked to on the phone made the presumptious statement that “nobody in Ohio would develop it”. She also said that they only develop 120, not 220. Oh, well.

But thanks for the input. I knew I could count on APUG!

Cheers,

-- Mark

 

[Siompa]

It's strange how hard it is to get mini labs to take those c-41 b/w rolls. I had to point out several times that it says " c-41 process only" right on the canister.