Originally posted by SuperAkuma He said to get the Kodak Tri-X 400 film.
A wise man, indeed.
Quote: I have a few questions that I wasn't able to find a clear answer to.
Is there really a difference in the quality between a C-41 type bw film and the "real" BW film?
Quality, as always, is subjective. I like the look and tone of traditional BW films - Tri-X especially. Tri-X is an old-school film - chunky grain that gives it a wide latitude (basically, how bright or dark you can shoot without adjusting your dev process).
IMPORTANT NOTE: Grain is not evil. Grain is not the enemy. Don't wanna go scaring you off like that. Some people have insanely high standards for how little grain they want.
Quote: Also how is the processing different if I process them myself?(I thought BW processing was easier so why is C-41 more convenient?)
Does it matter if it is C-41 or not if I take it to a lab to process it?
99 times out of one hundred, the average lab you find - in a chemist, Walmart, Target, will be C-41 only. It will only process C-41 films: "chromogenic" films - colour print films. What your mum used to take photos of your 5th birthday party. (Unless you're about eight years old. I'm betting you're not. Also, I apologise if you don't have a mum or are orphan or are from a...non-traditional family, as Steve Fielding wouldn't say...ah, you get the idea.)
It's the bog-standard film your see sold in supermarkets - Kodak Gold or Fujicolor. Both those companies also make professional-grade C-41 films: Kodak's Portra series, and Fuji's PRO series. Black and white versions, as Wheatfield said, just don't have the colour dyes on multiple layers that make colour negatives.
Anyway, yes, C-41 processing is more convenient, but more expensive. Much more than DIY traditional BW. You are, after all, paying someone else to do it for you.
But the beauty of traditional BW film is the variety. There are many, many more trad BW films to chose from, whereas with C-41 BW you're limited to about 3 (I think):
Kodak BW400CN,
Ilford XP2 Super, and
Fuji NEOPAN 400CN.
Trad BW film...oh, the possibilities! Do you want Tri-X pushed three stops, devved in D-76, as I do? Neopan 100 in Perceptol? Pan-F in a mixture of instant coffee and vitamin C tablets? Lucky 100, pulled two stops, in that weird-arse five bath process that takes three hours to complete that you found on
DigitalTruth.com?
Each of these will give different results - different tones, finer grain, with push back the shadows, more contrast, less contrast, bigger grain, greater sharpness...
Anything you like. Sure, there are labs out there that'll do trad BW for you, but at a cost, and often won't let you choose what developer you want.
Besides, it's a skill to have, and a fun one at that.