panchromatic

Definition: Light-sensitive material with more or less equal sensitivity to all colours visible to the eye. * Formerly specifically referred to film with extended red sensitivity in addition to blue and green. * Usually refers to black & white film. Everything is not the same as all equal Panchromatic films may respond to all the wavelengths that we humans do, but unfortunately, they do not match our eyes' varying sensitivity to different colours. We see greens quite brightly, for example, but panchromatic films treat them no differently from reds, as a result of which the rendering of greens in black & white films usually seems too dark.

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