<< Crawford in "Keepers of Light" says that with some many fine negatives
around, it is a shame that lith films are still used for making large
negative, but he does not explain what is wrong with using lith >>
I'm not sure of the context in which Crawford says this. However I think there
is no problem with using lith film but a very real problem in using lith
developer with it.
What you need in a negative for most alt processes is a full range of tones
together with high contrast - ie tones across a large density range. Lith film
processed in lith dev gives no tones, just black and white. Lith films
processed in other developers - for example diluted print developers or
universal developers - are capable of giving the range of tones required, but
many people prefer the results from non-lith films. Just as in normal b/w
photography you get different tonal qualities from using different films.
Of course you are right that there is no advantage in using panchromatic
materials in general when working from black and white originals. Some people
use colour transparencies as their starting point for large b/w negs and here
a pan material is a definite advantage.
Peter Marshall
On Fixing Shadows, Dragonfire and elsewhere:
http://faraday.clas.virginia.edu/~ds8s/
Family Pictures & Gay Pride: http://www.dragonfire.net/~gallery/
and: http://www.speltlib.demon.co.uk/