Developing Delta film

Hi to all, this is my first visit so I hope you can help?

My problem is geting the best result in terms of sharp negs, at the moment I use ilford perceptol as this is a fine grain developer but I find this dose not make for sharp prints at A4 or 10+8.

Someone told me once that a fine grain developer is not always the best way to get sharp prints, I would be greatfull of some feed back on this subject

 

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Carl

Sharp prints don't really have that much to do with grain and in some cases developers such as Rodinal will give greater 'apparent' sharpness through increased accutance but also increased grain. In my opinion there is no substitute for good optics, a smooth shutter, fast shutter speeds and a steady hand. If you look at work like 'The Americans' by Robert Frank most of the prints are very grainy, but quite sharp (even to the edge of the print) and I believe this is the result of using a Leica camera which not only has great lenses but also a smooth shutter. If your lenses are good quality then I would try and use shutter speeds of 1/125 and above for the best results, if this is not possible then you may have to resort to a tripod.

I agree that Perceptol is not a very "sharp" film developer. For increased sharpness try ID-11 1:3 or specially formulated high acutance developer. Be aware that usually this developers produce more grain, but on sharp areas it isn't that apparent.

My vote goes to diluted Xtol (1:2 or 1:3): full shadow speed, fine grain, high sharpness. If you dilute Perceptol you'll get more sharpness too.

I've been using ID-11 1:3 & 1:1 with pleasing results. Just my .02

The very best results from Delta, particularly 100, is obtained with PMK (Pyro-Metol-Kokalk.) This formula was developed by Gordon

Hutchings and is public domain so everyone is free to use it. Kits are available from Photographers Formulary, but it is easily mixed from dry chemicals available in any decent size city. Yes, it's more trouble than just pouring liquid concetrate from a bottle, but if you didn't have a passion for quality, you wouldn't be in this forum in the first place. So, for everyone who wants to be amazed at how good a negative can be, give PMK a try. There's an excellent article in the current issue of Camera Arts by Gordon himself.