Black&White negatives -> slides. How???

I have a number of 6x6 B/W negatives that I would like to turn into

positives for projection. I have a fully equipped darkroom and a

Hasselblad with 80mm lens available. What is the best way doing this?

you could try contact printing them onto 120 b&w film - something like Ilford Pan F perhaps. Don't know about exposure & develpoment, you'd have to experiment but perhaps using a flashgun at a fixed distance for repeatability?

Direct positive print film would be the way to go.

fine grain positive film works like enlarging paper dev in paper developer

i have not, as yet found any in 35mm but photowarehouse has it in 8 x 10 aheets and since is is handled under a safelight you can cut it down.

Positive film will not work, it will give a duplicate negative. Any

straight line negative film should suffice, like T-Max 100 or Delta

100. I would use 4x5 instead of roll film. It is easier to keep flat

to contact the negs on, you can process in a tray or BTZS tubes

and cut down after to mount. It would also allow a step wedge to

be contacted with the negative to monitor processing. You may

be able to contact 2 negatives at a time if you don't want the step

wedge.

I wonder if a slide duplicator would work. Neg where the slide goes and all. I

have read in the past where certain films were better for the reversal. I think

FP4+ was noted as one to use.

I remember a pro just shooting his prints with a 35 mm camera loaded with slide film; quick and easy. Alternatively, a film with a very low base density (eg. TMX, some MAco films) would work well as slide film, just copy the negatives on to it and have positives.

I second Art and Walter's suggestion for the "direct positive" style film, which, despite its name, is basically a printing paper emulsion on a film base (from what I understand). Photowarehouse.biz sells it in 8x10 sheets that you can contact-print onto. I tried it last week and got reasonable results for a first try. Be prepared to fiddle with developers to get the contrast right.

 

The "standard" base is pretty thin and I found it tricky to handle. You might want to try the "extra-thick" base. The film is cheap in any case.

 

Kodak sells a Fine-Grain Release Positive film (code 5302) that is hard to find, but a Google search might bring up a vendor -- try electron-microscopy supply houses. It is a 35mm film that comes in 100-ft rolls for about $17. If you have a 35mm camera with a macro lens, you might be able to photograph your 6x6 negs on a lightbox onto this film and get good results. The film can be developed in paper developer. I believe there is an 8x10 version of this film too, but I have never encountered it, and the price Kodak quoted me on it was very high.

 

Both of these films -- the Photowarehouse.biz sheet film and Kodak 5302 -- are pretty much only blue-sensitive. They can be handled under a safelight.

Can we get a few more opinions here? Two guys say positive film. I've never used this stuff, but doesn't it essentially make a duplicate of the original? The question is how to make a projectable B/W slide from a B/W negative. The thing that make me think I (maybe)don't understand positive film is that after another guy saying "Positive film will not work" (just like I think), someone else says "use positive film" (maybe he didn't read the other posts?).

A negative of a negative is a positive, so copying a negative onto negative film will give a positive "transparency". That's what I thought when I tried it. I used Tmax to make slides from Tmax. I got a transparency, but contrast was very low even after underexposing and pushing 1 or 2 stops (don't remember which). Someone at the time suggested using lith film (or something like that it) that records with higher than normal contrast. Maybe someone can chime in with info on that.

This Kodak publication:

 

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/o3/o3.pdf

 

recommends either 5302 or Tech Pan.

 

"Positive film" or "print film" like 5302 or Duratrans for color produces a positive image on a film base from a negative. Duratrans is a display material designed for light boxes like the ones above the registers at a fast-food restaurant. 5302 and the other X302 films in different formats are used for things like making final B&W prints of movies from negatives.

p.s.: 5302 is 35mm film, and 7302 is 16mm. I'm not sure that they make it in 70mm or medium format, so that would mean that if you want 6x6 slides, Tech Pan is the answer.

one way to do this is print your negatives on paper and make copies using BW slides films (such as Agfa SCALA 200x).

Copy the negatives onto Technical Pan Film - process in D-19 for 3.5 mins at 68 degrees. This works every time. You will like the results.

Use a slide duplicator for your hasselblad & shoot onto Scala (B+W transparency film). You could use a colour tranny film, just ensure that your lightsource is balanced well to avoid colour casts. You could even bodge it with a lightbox but I wouldn't recommend it. Otherwise digital transfer & image back to E6 film or take it to a pro lab & they'll interneg it.

 

Gavin

Wayne and others are right. Use TechPan sheet film and process per Wayne's figures. K has lots of info on the web and in tech pubs on paper. Your local library or photo club library may be of help. Also your local pro dev shop or litho shop can do this cost effectively if your run (images to reproduce or number or repros per image) is too small to be worth your investment in film and chemistry. Then again, if you have the film and chemistry, other new ideas may become the will for the way in hand.