Advantages to dr5 process?

[Steve Bell]

dr5 claim additional quality to their positive processing of traditional B&W film compared to normal processing. Can anyone verify this, and are then any advantages when the film will be scanned?

[Ray Heath]

g'day Steve

i have no idea what your asking about

what is dr5?

what do you mean by positive processing?

what advantages do you need when scanning?

????

[jd callow]

http://www.dr5.com/main.html

b/w positives from most any b/w film

[David A. Goldfarb]

I've been to the dr5 lab when it was in New York, and the main attraction was that it was a beautiful process with certain films. Read the website carefully, look at the sample images, check the exposure info for the films you like (reversal processing can boost speed significantly, possibly requiring more careful handling of undeveloped film), and shoot some tests, and see if you like it.

I think the biggest market for dr5 when they were in New York was magazine, commercial and editorial shooters who wanted to work in B&W, but whose editors liked to edit transparencies on a light table.

[tchamber]

The quality is definitely higher - finer grain, more dynamic range.

I find it most useful for 35mm film. I scan with a Canon flatbed. While dr5 gives better quality at any size, properly exposed MF and LF Xtol-developed negatives give me good scans.

The same isn't true (for me) with 35mm. I can't get a useable 35mm scan with 35mm B&W negs. With dr5 chromes, I can. I have 8x10 prints made from HP5+ at ISO 800, and they are more or less indistinguishable from anything made with MF.

[Steve Bell]

Thanks for the comments, I shall give them a try in the new year. With LF I have no problems, but when 35mm is the most suitable format, squeezing every last bit of quality out of the neg is important.

[coigach]

Can only 1/2 answer your question..! I use dr5 trannies for all my b+w work, mostly MF but some 35mm. I can't compare dr5 scans with 'traditional' b+w, but I can comment on the dr5 scans. In my experience dr5 trannies scan very well and easily. I use delta 100 as my mainstay, but have also used Kodax 100 TMX, Adox CHS 100, Ilford SFX, FP4 and HP5, all of these 'standard' dev1 and dev2 'sepia'. The all scan fine, with beautiful tomal range. I often get Lambda prints made from scanned trannies.

Sometime soon I hope to post some stuff in the gallery.

Hope this is useful,
G