Digital BW, The Print

redwoods2tiredhal writes:

> I just had the negatives scanned to TIFFs at a local shop and
> was quite surprised at the amount of grain showing.

What film was it?

Older films, as a general rule, had a lot more grain.  There have been
gradual improvements in film for decades, and so you don't really notice
the differences unless you compare old films with new films side by
side.  I've noticed it with color films, which were really bad even
thirty years ago: the grain from ISO 400 film back in the 1970s was
worse than the grain from ISO 800 film today.  The evolution in black
and white hasn't been as dramatic, but going all the way back to 1939
I'm sure there would be a difference.

Also, the film might have been deliberately pushed if it was slow film
and the pictures were taken in low light or at high speeds.  Of course,
that would make the grain a lot worse.