Kodak Professional Portra 400BW was a multi-purpose chromogenic black and white negative film designed to be processed in standard C-41 chemistry alongside rolls of colour negative film and printed on standard colour paper. It was developed like a colour-negative film in the C-41 process and delivered monochrome images like a black-and-white film. The film was intended for exposure with daylight, electronic flash, and artificial illumination.
Kodak Professional Portra 400BWW was a versatile film for 35mm and medium format cameras. It was made with a Kodak T-Grain emulsion and had a wide exposure latitude. Production of the Kodak Portra 400BW was discontinued and replaced with Kodak Professional BW400CN, which was also discontinued. This film incorporated Kodak T-GRAIN® emulsions, which provided excellent grain and sharpness at a relatively high speed. This film was used for portrait and wedding applications and many commercial applications.
I awoke on Monday morning feeling out of sorts. Not physically but emotionally. I was conflicted about a difficult decision I had to make. I needed to clear my head. It was Presidents Day's federal banking holiday, so I had the day off. After breakfast, I grabbed my Minolta X-700, MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 lens and loaded an expired roll of Kodak Professional Portra 400BWW from the box of expired 35mm film that my friend had sent me. I mounted the setup to my Manfrotto tripod. It was an overcast morning, and I wanted to ensure I could expose frames at a lower shutter speed if needed. I tried to avoid motion blur.
As I walked around the Princeton University campus, I became more relaxed. The air was cool, but I was comfortable. It was still early, and the campus was coming alive. I focused on bicycles. They are easy to find on campus. I walked west of Olden Street near the School of Engineering and Applied Science on Shapiro Walk. Shapiro Walk took me to the Fountain of Freedom.
I exposed several frames to photograph the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Foreign Policy magazine ranks the Princeton School second in the world for international relations at the undergraduate level behind Harvard University and fourth at the graduate level, behind the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, and Johns Hopkins University.
I exposed this 35mm roll of Kodak Portra 400BW at box speed. The scans exhibit a lot of chunky film grain. I think this is because I did not expose the film correctly. I had not yet learned about the "overexpose by one stop for each decade the film has expired" rule. I should have exposed the film at ISO 50, thereby overexposing each frame to adjust for the age of the film.
The film cartridge was developed at Boutique Photo Lab and scanned on my Epson Perfection V600 with VueScan 9. I made some minor cropping and perspective adjustments in Adobe Lightroom.
Name
Kodak Professional Portra 400BW
Format
35mm
Features
chromogenic black and white negative
Native ISO
400
Price
FREE
Exposed ISO
400
Lab
Boutique Film Lab
Process
C41
Scanner
Epson Perfection V600
Software
VueScan 9, Negative Lab Pro, Adobe Lightroom
Garfield Way · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Princeton University · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Belle Mara · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Belle Mara · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400Belle Mara · Monday 20 February 2023 · Minolta X-700 · MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 · ISO 400
Released in 2021 by the New Classic Film project, EZ400 is a panchromatic black and white negative 35mm film that delivers what some describe as "retro yet sharp images".
Released in 2021 by the New Classic Film project, EZ400 is a panchromatic black and white negative 35mm film that delivers what some describe as "retro yet sharp images".
When you rate it at box speed, EZ400 will give you contrast images with plenty of detail in the highlights and lightly subdued shadows. Suitable for all light conditions, EZ400 is versatile and capable.
There was a certain amount of buzz when the EZ 400 film stock was released. I fell for the hype, managing to order a few rolls at Meseroll, a bicycle shop. That seems weird to me. Meseroll was selling EZ400 in a pack of five 36 exposure rolls. I have exposed just this one roll so far.
Each 35mm film cassette is packaged in a durable recycled kraft paper container. I don’t know why kraft is spelt with a "k", but I think it's cool. The EZ400 containers are recyclable. The film cassettes have no DX coding, and this is a non-issue on cameras such as my Minolta XD-11 and X-700, where I can set the ISO manually, but it will be an issue for cameras that depend on DX coding.
I exposed the first roll at box speed at Palmer Square and around my neighbourhood. I sent the cassette off for Boutique Film Lab to develop. Here are some frames scanned with an Epson V600 with my scanning workflow. All film frames were exposed at box speed. The results are okay, nothing spectacular. But EZ 400 is low-price and an excellent alternative black and white film to put in my Minolta. I have four more rolls of EZ400. Maybe it will grow on me.
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