I would suggest you ease into this very gradually.(posted 8071 days ago)Get a roll of Ilford XP-2Super, expose it at 400, and take it to a reliable Fuji Frontier lab for proofing. (I saw some chromogenic B/W today at the school where I teach processed at Costco and they were horrid...looked like vomit). Have them done on a Frontier printer in the b/w channel. Good way to get started.
Interesting: I teach 5th grade. Will retire in 18 days! I was setting up a photo display board for open house tomorrow of a field activity with the Marine Science Institute near San Francisco, and I did some of the photos in black and white (XP-2) and some of these 5th graders had never seen a black and white print in their life...amazing! Some don't even know that humans have reached the Moon! I am a teacher and even I ask: where is our education?