T400CN Film Test

[P3D David W. Kesner <drdave@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I went out this past weekend a shot a roll of Kodak's new T400CN
Professional Film. This is a black and white film rated at EI 400 and
is processed in C-41 chemicals (color negative). It can then be
printed on Color or black and white paper.

I called Kodak and ask them if it could be reverse developed in E-6
chemicals (color slide) to get a B&W positive. They told me it should
work just fine, except the EI would need to be adjusted.
Unfortunately they didn't know which way. I set my light meter to 400
and shot on and two over and two under of several different subjects.
I was using a 3.5 Realist as the test camera.

I took the film in this morning and picked it up this afternoon. Good
news and bad news.

Good news: it worked. I got positives. The EI is way overrated in
this application. In most shots two over was still a little under
exposed, in other shots it was way underexposed. If I shoot another
roll, I will set the EI to 100 and go up and down from there.

Bad news: just what I expected to happen did. Being a C-41 film it
has the standard orange mask. When it is reverse developed it is a
nice dusty green mask (complementary color of orange). I called Kodak
and asked if I could use a lens filter to compensate. They said the
film was not designed to be developed that way so they don't have any
information and couldn't help me. (Who runs their technical help line
anyway?) I assume that because it is a B&W film a color correction
filter wouldn't work.

So, if you want B&W positives this is not the way to go. However, if
you want monochrome green slides it should work just fine. I am sure
there are one or two shots where this might actually work. There is
also the possibility of correcting with filters on the projector. I
haven't had a chance to mount any and look at them in a T'd Red
Button, but through a loop the grain doesn't seem noticeable (on par
with 100 Ektachrome Elite II).

I did get a chance to see some prints from this film when it was used
as it was designed and they were really nice. They were printed as
sepia tones (which I understand is much easier to do than standard
B&W film). This might make a good film for reproducing the look of
old view cards. I might have to shoot the next roll that way.

Thanks for the time,

David W. Kesner
Boise, Idaho, USA
drdave@xxxxxxxxxx
(No I'm not a doctor - just a nickname)


------------------------------