This is black & white film in the 35mm format. You can capture images on this combination of silver halides and various sensitising dyes. Over the decades, chemists and engineers have been able to expand the spectrum of light that black & white film can capture.

Nowadays, most film is ”panchromatic”, meaning it captures all visible light wavelengths. Older films, and some specialty offerings today, were ”orthochromatic”. These films are not sensitive to all wavelengths of light, and thus reproduce colors incorrectly.

Black & white film is easier to develop than color film because it does not require specific temperatures and development times to process properly. In fact, developing black & white film in unique ways, with different dilutions of chemicals and varied developing times, is a hobby of many.