Developer for Delta 400 - less grain and more sharpness

Developer for Delta 400 - less grain and more sharpness

 

Been using hc110 so far, and heard dd-x meets my requirements? Any suggestions? Thanks

Grain and sharpness normally go hand in hand - developers that get better sharpness, also render grain sharp (and hence more visible). So typically you can't have both. HC110 typically strikes a very good balance. I've not used Delta 400, but with plenty other Ilford films (HP5, FP4, Delta 100 and heavily pushed Delta 3200) I get very moderate grain, good sharpness.

Maybe post some examples, with development times, dilutions - I think that's more useful feedback than just trying another developer.

Thanks for your suggestion, how about XTOL with delta? Heard XTOL works well with nearly every film

Oh, just saw TMAX developer with delta 400, looks good to me. any opinions?

The only way to get significantly finer grain is to use a slower film. Or use a larger format.

 

Speed and granularity are inextricably interlinked, and using a so called "fine grain" developer will almost certainly lose you real film speed.

 

There's also a link between development speed, developer pH, and grain. Maybe if you use a higher dilution of HC110 you'll get finer grain. However, as Wouter says, developers that give fine grain don't improve sharpness and they don't give the fullest ISO speed.

Thanks for the suggestions :) I've actually decided to use dd-x. Xtol is kinda hard for me to store now

In general I found Ilford's Delta grain films to be inferior to the Kodak Tmax equivalents in terms of granularity. However, the difference in grain between them was irrelevant in 120 size.

Interesting, I know theres quite a lot of grain for tmax with delta

DD-X is quite convenient, as the solution lasts quite a while after you open the bottle. Not as long as HC-110, which is nigh-well eternal.

I would recommend DD-X too for this film. Alternative Xtol-Fomadon Excel W27.