ok, this is REALLY pissing me off. for 1) it should be simple, and 2) i’ve looked almost everywhere.
there’s two major distinctions of b&w film. the what-i-would-call ‘regular’ b&w film, which you can develop yourself in a small darkroom, or the c-41 b&w, which you develop with color developing solutions.
so, is there any difference in the quality of the blacks? i’ve used b&w exactly 3 times. 2x when i developed it myself in college, and once at the store. and it was FREAKIN expensive compared to color film (i used the b&w only film). so i know the c-41 process must be cheaper, but i’m wondering about the quality of the color.
Conventional B&W is cheaper if you do it yourself. As for which is better, it depends. If you go beyond the typical ASA 125 and 400 B&W films there are several specialized types like slow speed, fine grain Kodak Pan-F (if that stuff is still around). For versatility though you’ll get terrific results with Ilford C41 process film. I used the older XP1 but I’m sure the same rules apply to XP2. It’s nominally ASA400 but the tonal range is so wide you can shoot it at 100 and get the fine grain and gentle contrast range of a much slower traditional film. IN low light emergencies you can shoot it at 1600 or even 3200 and get somewhat better results than a “pushed” conventional film.
You probably don’t find much info because B&W is used far less by amateur photogs whan it was 20 years ago when the C41 B&Ws came out.
The professional C-41 process B&W films that I’m aware of are Kodak T400CN, and Ilford XP2.
There’s also a new-ish Kodak consumer C-41 B&W film- I think it’s called “Select Black and White +400” or something like that.
Basically, these are C-41 films which when developed, give you a monochromatic negative which can be printed just like a B&W negative. I think there can be slight color casts if printed on color paper, but I’m not sure if that’s printing problems, negative coloration, or paper sensitivity.
The roll of B&W 400+ I shot came out rather amazingly well even developed at Wal-Mart for 2.95, but have a almost unnoticeable sepia tint to them- they don’t have that stark black/white tone that printing on B&W paper has.
The big advantage of these films is that if you really want B&W, but don’t want to develop it yourself or wait forever, you can get it done anywhere.
But for real B&W prints, you’ll have to print them on B&W paper, and most places send out for that.