Curious about Tetenal developers (mentioned in other recent posts)

There have been several recent posts asking about Tetenal developers,

Emofin and Neofin Blau if I remember right. I have seen the names

before, but was hoping people could describe their experiences a

little, say how they differ from the usual choices. (I usualy use

Rodinal, so if you can use that as a comparison...)

 

As always, thanks.

According to the info I got with my order of Neofin Blau from JandC Photo it appears that Neofin Blau (blue) is geared toward slower films, Neofin Rot (red) toward faster films. Reportedly both are Beutler formulas, tho' Neofin Rot may be closer to FX-1 or another variant - sheer guesswork on my part, tho'.

 

So far I've used Neofin Blau exactly once and it worked precisely as expected: very high resolution, sharp, tight, well defined grain. However, because I've used it only on Efke R100 (also the first time I'd used that film) I'm reluctant to make other comparisons. For example, the grain is much tighter and resolution is much finer than Tri-X in Rodinal, but that's hardly a fair comparison. I plan to reserve the rest of the small vials of Neofin Blau for use with TMX, Pan F+ or Efke 25.

 

No idea about Emofin or other Tetenal developers, which include: Negafin, Emofin Pulver, Ultrafin SF, Ultrafin Plus, Ultrafin liquid, Neopress HC, Neotenal Pulver and Neotenal liquid.<div></div>

Emofin is a two-bath developper, i.e. you have to pour one part into the tank, 'process' for a while, then pour it out and pour in the second part. The second part is rather an activator for the first part. Emofin yields quite fine grain for high-speed films and usually pushes ASA 1 or 1 1/2 step, sometimes even two steps (I used HP5 and a meter setting of 1600ASA).

 

The special thing about Emofin is that it compensates extreme contrasts like highlights and deep shadows, but the normal contrast range is almost unaffected. I have been using Emofin on films like Tri-X-Pan and HP5 with excellent results. Also FP4 could be pushed 1 ASA step (to 400ASA) with very fine grain. Normal developping times are in the range of 3+3 to 6+6 minutes at 20 deg. C. It can be reused several times without changing the times significantly.

 

Ultrafin (there are several versions of this stuff) is a fine grain developper. I used it sometimes when I needed low contrast negs. Unfortunately both the diluted and the concentrated stuff (once the bottle is opened) cannot be stored very long. You should use the diluted developper within a few days.

 

Tetenal is one of the oldest german manufacturers of photo chemistry. They also sell print paper but I think they are not the original manufacturer.

Emofin is a true fine grain developer based on p-phenylenediamin, so

its first part is hazardous and capable of staining almost everything

(You spill a few drops of clear liquid somewhere and discover dark brown

stains a few hours later).

On the other hand it gives you very fine grain and a true gain in film

speed while keeping quite good sharpness.

It has been advised not to use a stop bath with Emofin, because its

second part contains quite a lot of sodium carbonate. I always used a

stop bath because of the short development times (4+4 min for Ilford

Delta 100) and noticed significant pressure built up during stop.

Never had problem with the quality of my negatives though.

I get Delta 400 at an EI of 500 in Emofin at 20 degrees for 7+7. So it's more like a 2/3rds stop improvement in speed. Grain is ok for a 400 film. But I'm thinking of making the move to even faster film and am playing with Delta 3200 shot at 1600 in DDX 1:4 for 12 1/2 mins. I shoot casual up-close people shots indoors in poor lighting. So the extra stop helps. I've also switch to a 35mm lens instead of a 50mm to pick up depth of field.

T-crystal films like the Delta400 were just introduced at the time when I was processing with Emofin, and I only used 'standard' b/w films. Maybe for t-crystal emulsions the gain in ASA steps is somewhat lower than for standard b/w films.

Facinating. Lex, thanks for the visual; it really is crisp! I'll definately add it to my list.

Just be careful with Emofin.

according to my experience (matching manufacturers recs.) it behaves as a typical two bath developer. This means, it`s going to bend the curve of the film in the shadows (basically development in highligt areas stops when remaining A solution (while beiing in B) is used up, while the shadows are developed longer). Therefore I wouldn`t recommend it for standard development especially of pictures wich already have a finite tonality. On the other hand it does real magic with pictures, with to high contrast (bright sun landscapes, with shadows i.e.). The rise in sensitivity is just a result, the shadows are pushed, while the highlights aren`t.)