Pushing Kodak B&W 400

According to the Kodak website

(http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/f15/f15.sh

tml#push%20processing), I should be able to get "acceptable"

negatives with a 3 stop push to 3200. Do you have any experiences

pushing this film?

KODAK Black & White Film / BWC http://tinyurl.com/2bzkx is a chromogenic film that Kodak "<i>claims</i>" can be pushed to 3200.<P>I bet you a box of TriX it will look worse then crap, huge soft grain, blocked shadows, contrast right off the scale.<P>Only way though is try it and see.

If I understand correctly, you are referring to the consumer B&W C41 film. I have used the pro C41 Kodak B&W film, the 400 CN I believe, with only 'acceptable' 5x7 results up to an effective speed of ISO 1000 by using the film's lattitude about 1.1/3 stops (no push processing - just underexposure, and compensation with the prints by a pro lab).

 

On the other hand, with the real deal, that is real B&W Kodak TMY (ISO 400), I regularly expose @ ISO 800 and push process 1.1/2 stops. I have a 10x16 enlargement on my wall shot by that formula - yes there is grain, but a lot less than any other type of push processing I have experienced (Provia 400F to ISO 1600, Kodak Portra 800 to ISO 1600, etc). In my experience with C-41 push-processing (pro labs), the results were never better than 'acceptable'. So Kodak's claim about pushing that film to ISO 3200 is a strong claim indeed. I would imagine that if your exposure is right on with absolutely no room to play with any exposure lattitude (what lattitude @ ISO 3200?), small prints (5x7?) might be doable. Someone with direct experince with that scenario would have to confirm.

I dont like kodak black and white films. I do natrual light barroom photography and street photography, and I chose illford. Depending on how far you want to push it you could either use delta pro 400 or 3200. I dont recomend pushing delta 400 past 2 stops. It gets very grainy. 3200 is a 1200 asa rated film that I have pushed all the way to 6400 with successful results. Hope this helps

I had to come back to this post; I thought about it several times in the past few hours.<P>Coming back I found that it appeared those posting had not noticed that Kodak has indeed published C41 push times for this film in the <a href="http://tinyurl.com/2bzkx"><b>Kodak B&W 400 Spec Sheet</b></a>. <P>Luddite that I am I figure that there is a huge difference between Kodak's claim that this film works when shot at 3200 and what an 8x12 says as it sits in my hand.<P>Guess the only way is for me to go buy a roll and ruin it, I mean shoot it at 3200.

I haven't tried it, but from my experience (HP5, not HP5+, TMY, XP1) I know, you should be a desperated darkroom wizard to try it out. Push only 2 stops to have pleasant results. 35mm at 3200 ends at 5x7" prints. "Acceptable" sounds fishy.