Kodak BW 400CN
2004-08-03 by Stephen Kobrin
A recent Amateur Photographer review (10 July) of the new Kodak chromogenic B&W film, which will replace both Portra B&W and T-400CN, reports that there are some significant differences between this film and Ilford's Super XP2. Specifically, they found that BW400CN has a more limited lattitude than Super XP2, one stop (400-800) compared to 50-800 for the latter. In addition, the review indicates that Super XP2 does better in rendering fine continuous tonal detail. I switched from Super XP2 to Portra B&W some time ago because it seemed to scan more easily. However, I have always assumed that Portra has the wide exposure lattitude associated with chromogenic films and shot at 320 rather than 400 most of the time. Was I wrong in my assumption about Portra? Does anyone know if the new Kodak film has a narrower lattitude than previous Kodak films? Have any of you experimented with this film? Does it have significantly different characteristics? It is getting hard to find Portra B&W, at least in the U.S. and my stock is running low. My inclination is to switch back to the Ilford film. Steve