Digital BW, The Print

On Mon, Aug 18, 2003 at 11:55:34AM -0000, craig wrote:
> Daniel,
> 
> Im very surprised on that issue; and it raising the question below...
> 
> > Those films have a very good exposure latitude, allowing you to 
> shoot
> > from 50 to 1600 iso on the same roll of film. I'm not aware of any 
> color
> 
> If you have a 5 stop lattitude (iso 50~1600) on, basically where you 
> feel like positioning mid-tone, at the extremes, ie. at iso 50 what 
> bandwidth do you have for the highlight detail (assuming its a iso 
> 400 rated film for example) and obviously shadow detail when rated at 
> the other end?
> 
> If this works the implication is an exposure latittude greater than 
> traditional silver based films - but I suspect that wont be the case!
> 

It isn't the case. Films like XP2 can handle overexposure very well - there
is not much of a shoulder on the film curve - the line just keeps going
straight. On the other hand it simply cannot handle underxposure gracefully,
especially if you are using the fixed C41 process without any pushing.
Ilford's marketing machine was in overdrive when they say you can rate XP2 at 
1600 with good results - the results are not good at all. Overexpose with
impunity, underexpose at your peril!


-- 
Tony Terlecki
ajt@...