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Thread: The black & white transparency process and dr5 - who's used it/them?

  1. #1

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    The black & white transparency process and dr5 - who's used it/them?

    The firm 'dr5' in Los Angeles offers a "Black and white transparency process from standard black and white film." Have any of you folks used dr5 and/or the process that leads to a black and white transparency? It seems like a sensible thing to do. Is there a downside to printing from a black and white transparency as a result of using this process?

    If it is indeed "the cat's meow", why don't more processing labs offer it?

    Best regards,

  2. #2
    Whatever David A. Goldfarb's Avatar
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    The black & white transparency process and dr5 - who's used it/them?

    When they were in New York, I used them for R-printing, which they no longer do, but I also took some time to see some of the transparencies. He has a display of dr5 transparencies at the lab on a lightbox with all the different films they run. It's a beautiful process, but I didn't really have a need for B&W transparencies. Tri-X sheet film is great in dr5.

    It's easier to print from negatives, if you print conventionally. The service would be most attractive, I think, to people who shoot mainly for magazines, books and advertising, where color transparencies are a common way of submitting work.

    Why isn't it widely offered? I think the market is small, and the method is proprietary. They have their own system and don't seem to be trying to franchise it out.

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    Moderator Ralph Barker's Avatar
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    The black & white transparency process and dr5 - who's used it/them?

    I did some testing of the process with Tri-X a while back, John, and was quite pleased with the results. The range of tonality is quite nice - better, I think, than that of Agfa Scala. The appeal, as I see it, is if one plans to scan the resulting images and either use the scans directly, or print digitally. Note that there are two different dr5 process available: one that produces a goldish sepia tone, and one that is colder and neutral in tone.

    As David G. mentioned, dr5 is a proprietary process, developed by David Wood, a photographer and chemistry wiz. Although he licensed the technology to a lab when he moved to New York a while back, I believe he has returned to Los Angeles and has taken over the processing. My guess is that the appeal of B&W transparencies, however good, is rather limited. As such, there probably isn't much market demand for wider implementation.

  4. #4

    The black & white transparency process and dr5 - who's used it/them?

    John,

    I have used it with HP5+. The results were excellent. The best results for this film are when it is rated at 800 to 1000. Even at 1600 it looks very good. I would rather shoot this film at 1600 and use the dr5 process that to push it in the normal way. But as a transparency, its not useable for printing the image. Although they scan very well. The sharpness is very impressive. So with the ability to have a great tonal range and very fine grain while shooting at 1000 or 1600, its very useful. Try it. Its worth it just to learn what else can be done with standard B&W film.

  5. #5
    Whatever David A. Goldfarb's Avatar
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    The black & white transparency process and dr5 - who's used it/them?

    David Wood moved out to New York with his process and ran the lab here. I don't think there was any licensing involved.

    He's a great person to talk to--very knowledgable about film and chemistry. Definitely discuss your film choices with him before going into it for best results. If you can't visit the lab and look at samples on his light table, the website has examples of how different films look in dr5. Film speed increases with the dr5 process and latitude is similar to color transparency film (about 4-5 stops).

    In addition to Tri-X, I also liked the look of Fomapan T200 in dr5. It resembles something from the age of silent film. I think he developed the process from historic techniques used for reversal processing of cine film.

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    The black & white transparency process and dr5 - who's used it/them?

    I use his service with fair regularity and am in general impressed by the process. Definitely pulls more dmax out of a film than if normally processed, and often does so without an adverse affect upon the exposure latitude. HP5+ @ EI 800 is quite nice and my most frequent choice, but I also dabble with Tech Pan, Delta 100 and TX/TXP. I've not tried to print the chromes with an internegative, instead preferring to have Slideprinter in Denver do a $30 drum scan and then make prints from that. I've also had Type-R prints done from the chromes just before that process bit the dust, and you're now reading the words of an admittedly staunch laggard who concedes that the Lightjets are unequivocally better. It is more certainly more expensive than developing the film yourself, but I just love gazing at chromes upon the lightbox, and for that pure joy I'll sacrifice some cash and conveniences.

  7. #7

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    The black & white transparency process and dr5 - who's used it/them?

    Thank you for all your responses. I just dropped off some 5X7 T-Max at dr5. I'll see the results of my efforts tomorrow. David Wood is still unpacking from the New York move - but has everything up and running nonetheless. He mentioned that some folks do Cibachromes using his transparencies.

    I'm still thinking Lightjet from a drum scan would be a good alternative, though. $30.00 for a drum scan? What is the expected output size?

    Thanks again, everyone. Best regards,

  8. #8

    Re: The black & white transparency process and dr5 - who's used it/them?

    Which of course once again begs the question - wouldn't it be nice to have a "easy to use" all purpose reversal soup that we can use, without re-exposing the negs, or finding hard to get chemicals etc.

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    Re: The black & white transparency process and dr5 - who's used it/them?

    Actually I've been investigating home b&w reversal processes and I'm interested in trying it out. I found an article to do it with TMX with a sodium thiosulfate solution as a replacement for the color developer in a 3-bath E-6 process (so first developer -> sodium thiosulfate -> bleach).

    I was going to make another thread about it sometime but maybe it applies here. Anyone done it? Or something similar?
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  10. #10

    Re: The black & white transparency process and dr5 - who's used it/them?

    There are a few threads at APUG and I am sure, in here too. People who knew the stuff seem to say "it's easy, my 3 year old can handle it," but then I look at the instructions and said, "hmm, seems to be a bit more complicated than mixing up a set of E-6 Tentenal..." If you try it, please report back (in a new thread). Since I do scanning, this approach has a lot of appeal to me. Thanks.

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