Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Richard
Smallfield <r.smallfield@p...> wrote:
> Hi,
> what with the demise of Tech Pan and APX 25, I wondered what people
think the finest grained film is. I love the optics of 35mm cameras
and would like to still be able to shoot something like APX 25 if it
existed.
> 
> I think the finest grained films are Delta 100 or maybe Pan F Plus.
But how about Velvia desaturated? Or what about the small makers - are
there any emulsion made for example in Eastern Europe that are filling
the gap in slow films that digital has left?

BlueFire...

http://www.adox.net/Products.htm

They call it "the new Tech Pan".

> Secondly I'd be interested in people thought about shooting
infra-red in digital as opposed to Kodak High Speed Infrared film.
> 
> You have to use a mighty slow exposure to shoot through an Infrared
filter - though this is useful when one wants a slow exposure. And
grass, for example, can become totally washed out and devoid of any
detail. I have not got the results shooting digitally that I see in my
Charlie Waite book. (BTW, if anyone has not seen his work, try
Googleing him - he's one of the best.)

Not familiar with Charlie Waite. 

The big problem is that most of the "IR look" that we all know and
love from our film days has nothing to do with the IR itself. It has
to do with the lack of an anti-halation layer on Kodak HIR. This
pretty much doubled the film's sensitivity, but also gave it the
"glow" that people came to associate with IR photography. And the
grain. So the "IR look" isn't just white foliage and dark skies, it's
grainy, glowing foliage.

Digital IR records everything with smoothness and cruel sharpness. You
need some shopping to get the whole HIR look...