Nope . . . you have it somewhat backward . . .
Kodak's chromogenic B&W film created to compete with Ilford's XP2 Super
(also ISO 400) was initially created as T400CN a number of years ago (four,
five ??). Kodak then released essentially the same emulsion with a
slightly different orange mask for consumers called Black and White Plus
400 about a year or so later, along with the same thing under a slightly
different name for APS. The release of a B&W chromogenic under the Portra
umbrella was relatively recent after several years of marketing them as
T400CN and the consumer version. All of these are essentially the same
film. The only thing different I'm aware of is an orange mask on the
consumer stuff to make it easier for the one-hour lab dweebs to deal with
trying to keep prints something close to an acceptable neutral gray on
color paper.
BTW, I gave up on all of them, including Ilford's XP2. Kodak's stuff is a
general purpose film that tries to do everything and as a result it does
nothing well. Compared to some of the *true* B&W films, it's mediocre on
all counts. Ilford's XP2 Super is somewhat better, but still isn't steller
at anything in particular. It is more difficult for consumer labs to print
as it doesn't have much, if any, of an orange mask. Reason? It wasn't
intended to be printed on color paper in a consumer lab except perhaps for
very quick turn-around throw-away proofs. It's intended to be printed on
true B&W paper for final prints.
-- John
[who quickly abandoned the chromogenics for a variety of reasons]
At 08:11 PM 9/30/03, John Hudson wrote:
the Kodak 400 ISO C41 black and white film has sold at one of our major
grocery chain stores here in New Brunswick since this summer. Maybe it is
just Portra film in new wrapping.
jh
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