dr5, or dr5 Chrome, is a reversal black-and-white process, through which most kinds of black-and-white negative films produce transparencies (slides). It was developed by photographer turned photographic chemist David Wood, CEO and proprietor of dr5 Chrome Lab, whose name displayed on the lab website by December 2016 as "dr5-film" lab. The dr5 process is a chemical reversal process, rather than the standard, light-based reversal for B&W transparency (black and white slide]. David Wood recently contributed to the acclaimed Darkroom Cookbook.
History
The "dr5 process" is the fifth incarnation of the process, derived by experimentation by David Wood from 1989 through 1991. Though reversal film processing has been was well known throughout photographic history, the dr5 process is proprietary by trade secret. Privately performing the process alone until 1998, Wood afterward briefly teamed with A&I Color Lab in Los Angeles CA, via their affiliate lab AIM. The dr5 process won best new product in 1999 at the '99 Photo Expo-Plus Expo Review In August 2001, Wood opened an independent lab, then called "dr5 Chrome", at 307 West 38th Street in New York City. The lab used a processor made for dr5 specifications by Tecnolab in Italy. Following a period after 2005 located in Denver, dr5-film lab announced in late 2016 via their website their relocation to Stuart, IA, and the resumption of their dr5 processing service by November 29, 2016, at the new Iowa location.