About to develop my first B&W film, need advice.

I just noticed that you said incident meter.

I have never had a camera with an incident meter, but then also

I have never had a Hasselblad. How do you use a camera with an incident meter?

I just noticed that you said incident meter.

 

I have never had a camera with an incident meter, but then also

I have never had a Hasselblad. How do you use a camera with an incident meter?

I use it just like any other standalone meter. Meter with it and manually transfer exposure to the camera. The prism/viewfinder is detachable, you can even remove it, walk over to the subject, meter with incident, walk back to your camera on tripod, manually set camera exposure and shoot. I don't do that as I also have a separate meter, but one could.

Just to follow up on the TMAX 400 development aspect of the original thread. I'm glad that process succeeded, I scanned the film and it looked great. Here are few shots from it. It was stressful preparing to develop my first film, and then it was magical pulling the developed film out of the tank and seeing the results. On the other hand it was totally crushing seeing the Delta 3200 results :(

Anyway, here are some TMAX400 shots in TMAX 1:4 developer, scanned with Canon 5D IV on a light table, it's a 4 shot stitch, about 1:1.3 magnification.

In post #6 you indicated that you were using 1 litre of dev / stop / fix etc, yet only processing one film. Did you, by any chance, use the correct amount of dev for one film, but dilute it to fill the 1 litre tank ? This link

How much developer/stop/fixer do I need with 120 film?.

may help you if this is what happened.

In post #6 you indicated that you were using 1 litre of dev / stop / fix etc, yet only processing one film. Did you, by any chance, use the correct amount of dev for one film, but dilute it to fill the 1 litre tank ? This link

 

How much developer/stop/fixer do I need with 120 film?.

 

may help you if this is what happened.

I'm pretty sure I did it correctly, I prepared 1l of working solution at 1:4 dilution, 200ml of TMAX stock solution (from manufacturer bottle) + 800ml of distilled water. I used it with TMAX on day1 and then reused with Delta 3200 on day 2. But maybe 2 things happened. I didn't store it correctly over night and the bottle I used let oxygen in and it got exhausted. And maybe i didn't control temperatures that closely, it was a lot colder the second night when doing the Delta film. I processed TMAX at 72F and Delta at 68F. I measured the developer temp maybe 15min before processing, it's possible it got colder by the time I actually processed. The stainless steel tank also feels pretty cold, so maybe the tank cooled the developer down after I poured it in. I think what I need to try next time is to sit the tank in water warmed up to the right temperature. I process the film in a room with utility sink with running hot and cold water. So I think I'll just prefill the sink with water at the right temp, sit all all my working solutions and tank in it and let it sit in it until the moment I need it. I'll put a thermometer in the sink and adjust hot water as need if temp starts dropping. I may even re-sit the tank in it between agitations to keep it consistent, e.g. if developer should be at 75F, but ambient is 68F. My intuition is telling me that the stainless steel tank is probably great conduit of heat transfer and I need to work little bit harder to keep it at the right temp. I'm new to development and these are just my early thoughts, would welcome any feedback. Thank you.

Mixing sounds right, but I also suspect temperature.

You might also check your thermometer.

Ilford recommends closer to 75F for push times higher than 6400, mostly because people

will get tired of waiting so long. The heat capacity of the metal is small enough that it shouldn't

do it, but then again every little bit adds up.

I believe 1L is enough for 12 rolls, with increased times for the last 8 rolls.

For only overnight, ordinary bottles with most of the air out should be fine.

The data sheet also has a time-temperature correction chart.

(It is supposed to be the same for all films and developers.)

If you are down to 66F, it should go to about 9:15.

In a cold room, it might lose that much in 15 minutes.