I don't know if he was starting with negs or positives, but I got the impression that he was producing the b&w prints in order to have these available (as an option) for sales at shows and open studio events.
Many still shoot color neg because it gives them the option of getting both if they want or require, it was quite common at the lab that I worked at to have customers request both B&W and color from the same neg.
By the way, many of the new printing systems will do it through the computer included in the machine as well as print color positives and b&W positives from Color Slides, albeit not the same quality and tonality ranges, but it is a pretty easy process, with machines like the Noritusu 2900 RA-4 Paper processor.
it's still around--only made in one grade (medium) now. used to be offered in three. I use it where I work once in a blue moon, but haven't ordered any in a long time. it's funky stuff to use, but is really the only way to go for printing color negs on b/w.
I often shot and still do shoot a lot of color negative material simply because my customers invariably will call back and ask for a B&W print for news paper reproduction or for some other reason. If I am shooting for myself I normally use b&w film. I still prefer Kodak emulsions over all the others, but may in the near future be forced to make a change.
I personally have miles of exposed 35mm Ektacolor and Kodacolor negatives that have never been proofed, so I am in the process of going back through these old exposures and selecting frames to print when my Dark Room materializes. I find ocassionaly in my files b&w prints, some on panalure that I have shared with the gallery.
I did not find that Panalure had a short range of tones, if it was in the negative I generally could get it into the print. Panalure definitely could not be considered my favorite paper. But as long as it exists I will have it on the shelf.
In a lith printing class I took a couple of years ago, the teacher said that color negs could make good lith prints, so I decided to experiment. The attached photo is my favorite of the few color negs I experimented with. You may not want to work with lith to make b&w prints from color negs, but I thought I'd mention the possibility.
It's been a very long time since I've used transparency film - how does one make a copy negative? Would the results be sharp enough to make small prints - say up to 8x10 or so? Or does it make a potentially pleasing diffusion effect?
As David has indicated above, a lot depends on your technique and equipment. If I recall correctly, I worked with either a 6 x 7 or a 4 x 5 transparency when I once did a color to B & W conversion. I put the transparency in the enlarger and "printed" a negative by projecting the image onto T-Max 100 film in a film holder.
The results I got were adequate, but certainly nothing to make me want to do the procedure again unless absolutely necessary. My 4 x 5 copy negative enlarged to 16 x 20 lacked the very smooth tonality a 4 x 5 T-100 negative ordinarily delivers. There was a certain "roughness" of tonality which was unlike anything else I've encountered; the closest comparison I can make is the look of fairly large prints (11 x 14 or bigger) made from 6 x 6 or 6 x 7 negatives on the old (1970's) Tri-x. I didn't find the result particularly appealing, but it would certainly have been serviceable in a smaller print, especially one intended only for reproduction in a publication.
You shoot color neg because the client wants color, you can make good black and white prints if you use a 3 and half filter with VC paper. I shoot color neg because I want the best of both worlds and I get it.
Personally, I don't usually like the look of color converted to B&W, because I like the spectral response of classic films like Tri-X. On the other hand, if you like the T-max look, you might like color neg on Panalure.
Technology is not a panacea. It alone will not move your art forward. Only through developing your own aesthetic - free from the tools that create it - can you find new dimension to your work.
You can still get Panalure in the US. I have to import it specially into the UK. It is wonderful. You can even use filtration to darken skys etc at the printing stage, but you can't use a safelight with it, so you need to know your dark room well. As to why you should use it rather than B&W film, it's just a useful option to have.
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