Range of kodak 400BW

... I have been reading up on this film and found that it can be used at 100 asa

up until 800. This would mean that for instance you just set your wettings at an

average light reading value and click away disregarding your meter reading all

together ?

If so, it must have an optimal value, is this 400 ASA ?

How does the contrast and tonality change ?

thanks in advance

It depends on the lighting. With fairly contrasty lighting the shadows will plug and in general everything gets starts to get muddy above EI 250-320.

On a cloudy day you can just about get EI 400 out of it.

http://www.flickr.com

Search for "400BW" and you'll see a lot of example shots.

I like it at 320 the best but I prefer real Silver film in good old D-76.

If you do any of your own enlarging I would go with XP-2. But if you scan your own Both are great films.

I accedently ran a roll of it through Diafine 1 time boy was it weird. Mushy Soft and Muddy but I did get some printable and Scannable shots though I don't know how.

Larry