We just received amazing news from John and his team; their reactor run was successful and we have confirmation that a black & white reagent is again possible!
John's words tell it best...
"Hi guys,
Rising at 5:30 on this cold December morning to meet by 9:00 at the lab, I had only slim hope that we could pull this off. But pull it off we did. This spread was done minutes after the reagent was out of the reactor, probably was around 125º(F), which we would never do but since an answer was really needed so as not to spoil our Christmas I ran it anyway.
And yes, this will work. We are still lacking a toner and developer that can take away the warm tone but I like it and think we should run it after the holiday when it cools down and settles a bit. The important thing to me is always the D-max and this has a very good one. The contrast in the scene is adversely impacted by the crazy temperature but I believe it will settle down once we find the best gap setting for this reagent. I am also working with BW negative and positive that is likely to be from the early 2000s...
best,
John"
To John and his team... congratulations! You guys have made our year!
This ensures that 2021 will see a new black & white packfilm resurrected from the dead, and this is certainly cause for celebration.
Also, this means we've officially entered phase 2 (price jumps up to €9/shot).
So enjoy the last days of 2020, and we hope this little bit of good news has added some sparkle to your holidays.
- Chris