andy_laycock2

Congratulations on deciding to try black and white, hopefully you'll find it very rewarding. To answer some of your questions, if you live in or near a city you shoud be able to find many brands of black and white film. You probably won't find them at your local supermarket but certainly a camera store and film processors will stock some. If you don't want to develop your own film there are two excellent BW films that are processed by the normal commercial color processors; they are Ilford XP-2 and Kodak Tmax 400CN. They cost the same as color film and you only pay for the developing it will be cheaper to process. I think you'll find in general that after the initial cost of equipment and paper that developing and printing your own BW will be cheaper than color. As for books you can save money by visiting a good library where you should find all the best darkroom books. You might also want to check out a local camera club. Typically most members shoot color but there is bound to be someone that has a darkroom and can give specific advice and as you can tell by this forum we love talking about our passion. Finally, your Yashica or any other camera can be used for black and white. Good luck.

It is well known that Ilford XP2 requires higher contrast filtration than regular black and white film and I imagine that Tmax 400CN will be the same.

I have been using Ilford Rapid Fix at the recommended times and dilution with Delta 100 and 400 for about 2 years and have only had excess magenta cast once. I usally wash (with no wash aids) for about 20 minutes at a fairly low flow rate in tap water. I wonder why there is so much variability with fixing. Perhaps there is a problem with shelf life or something.

Two questions: 1.I've heard a number of times about pre-wetting films to reduce grain and was wondering whether this would make a noticeable difference with 35mm and if yes how should I go about it. 2. Does anyone have development times for Agfapan 400 with Rodinal and D-76. Thank you.

I have a nearly full bottle of Agfa Rodinal (Rodinol?) developer that was opened more than a year ago and used twice. I want to use it again but the instructions say that it only lasts for 6 months after being opened. Does anyone know whether this is the case or is Agfa just being cautious? It was stored at normal room temperature in the dark , undiluted.

Sharp prints don't really have that much to do with grain and in some cases developers such as Rodinal will give greater 'apparent' sharpness through increased accutance but also increased grain. In my opinion there is no substitute for good optics, a smooth shutter, fast shutter speeds and a steady hand. If you look at work like 'The Americans' by Robert Frank most of the prints are very grainy, but quite sharp (even to the edge of the print) and I believe this is the result of using a Leica camera which not only has great lenses but also a smooth shutter. If your lenses are good quality then I would try and use shutter speeds of 1/125 and above for the best results, if this is not possible then you may have to resort to a tripod.