Fuji Neopan ACROS 100 Developed in Rodinal

<p>I developed my first roll of Fuji Neopan ACROS 100 in Rodinal today. 1:50 at 68 degrees for 7 minutes and it came out looking very nice. I am excited to do some printing next week (am taking a darkroom lab class at school this summer). Has anyone else shot this film much, and if so, do you develop in Rodinal?<br>

I used to shoot Fuji Neopan 1600 a lot in the late 1990s, and it was a wonderful gorgeous film. Had a very Tri-X like grain though a much faster film. Exposed it at ISO 800-1000 and developed in straight D-76 replenished at 70 degrees for 3 minutes 30 seconds with great results.</p>

<p>Hi Dave,</p>

<p>I shoot a lot of Acros in 35mm, and develop in any one of the three developers I use most often (510-Pyro, Hypercat, GSD-10), depending on what I want to get out of the film. </p>

<p>I used to shoot a lot NP1600, too, and developed in my superfine grain developer. I like that combination very much.</p>

<p>Enjoy your lab class!</p>

<p>I've been using quite a bit of ACROS in medium format, and I compelled to say that it's not at its best in Rodinal. I'm really happy with the results I get developing it in XTOL or D-76, though I do find that XTOL is marginally "better."</p>

<p>I thought Rodinal would give the film a better acutence, similar to HC-110 but not as contrasty. Why do you not like it with Rodinal?<br>

What is your dev time with D-76? 1:1?</p>

<p>Yeah I use it with Rodinal a lot but recently I like more traditional films like the 400 or 1600. Acros looks too plain I think. It is very sharp though.</p>

<p>Well, I don't like Rodinal for ACROS for a couple of reasons. First, ACROS is a very fine grained film, and I don't like grain. Rodinal doesn't help me explot the extremely fine grain characteristics of the film. What should be smooth, starts to look gritty. If I want that, I'll shoot Foma 400 and get all the grit I can stand. Then there's the question of film speed. Rodinal isn't the best choice for exploiting full emulsion speed, and ACROS isn't a speed demon. I don't want to think about down rating the film so I can get adequate shadow detail when the film is already slow enough. And if that's not enough, I do think that I get more resolution from D-76 or XTOL. No, I haven't measured it, but it sure looks that way.</p>

<p>D-76, 1+1 @68F? About 10 to 10.5 minute. XTOL about the same.</p>

<p>Frank, thanks. I'll try this film with D76. But even with fine grained film, I like some grit. I used to shoot Agfa 25 all the time, and develop it in HC-110, with great results. Here's one example:</p>

<div></div>

<p>And here is a 100 percent pixel view of the parking meter of the above image:</p><div></div>

<p>It's a great combination and produces a beautiful, creamy tonal range. I use this combination almost exclusively (for medium format).</p>

<p>I have devved Acros in Rodinal, rating it at 50 and devving for 8 minutes at 20 C. I use a diffuser head enlarger. Personally, I don't like Acros in solvent developers, I like sharpness and Rodinal majors in sharpness.</p>

<p>Is Acros a "traditional grain" film? I`m just curious (traditional vs. tabular type or similar, I mean).<br>

The Fuji site doesn`t mention it.</p>

<p>I rated the Fuji ACROS 100 I shot at ISO 80, and looking at the negatives after processing I might have been smart to rate it at ISO 50 to get better shadow detail. But I've yet to print or scan it so I'll make a determination then.</p>

<p>Jose,</p>

<p>I think it's a common misconception that a given film is either controlled crystal growth, or traditional technology, instead of some blend of the two. I'm not sure what percentage of the blend is required to categorize a film as a controlled-growth film, but I'm fairly certain Acros qualifies, judging by its characteristics. </p>

<p>Well, what I really want to know is about the forgiveness in Acros film developing... my reference could be TMax, something I consider too much precise to my liking. I wonder about the highlight behavior of this film.</p>

<p>Jose,</p>

<p>Ryota Itoh does amazing work with Acros developed in Hypercat. I think it's worthwhile for anyone curious about this film, this developer, or especially the combination, to have a look at his very fine work.</p>

<p><a href=" /><br /></p>

<p> </p>

<p>Thanks Jay... it`s difficult to distinghish on scanned pics for web but I`d say he verges on highlight blowness... this seems to me wonderful sharp pics, with extremely high microcontrast. Maybe that look is given by the developer, looks to be an acutance type one.</p>

<p>Jose,<br>

I think Itoh captured a very long range of brightness, and for me, the highlights make the image. Hypercat is a highly concentrated tanning/staining, catechol-based developer formulated to produce maximum acutance. </p>

<p>I think Acros is a T-type film. I have no scientific proof or anything but that's what I heard some place (yeah I know that's not very convincing) and I think the look definitely looks different to normal films. They have a Neopan 100 SS which is a traditional film.</p>

<p>Dave:</p>

<p>I love that "Bubble Gum Crisis" photo. It has panache!</p>

<p>Rating Acros at 100, I've developed it in Rodinal 1:50 for the time the MDC suggests - 13.5 minutes, which is too much. The negatives are printable tho, just using a lower contrast filter. Does anyone have a better time for this combination, rating the film at 100? I see no problem getting full speed out of Acros in Rodinal.</p>

<p>John, thanks very much, it's my favorite from the entire decade of the 1990s. <br>

I shot another roll of ACROS 100 this weekend, rating it at ISO 64. Will see how it develops again in Rodinal. </p>

<p>I've developed one roll of Acros in Agfa Rodinal in 17 degrees, developing time was 18 minutes with <strong>very gentle </strong>agitation every 3 minutes.<br>

There is the sample:<br>

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I've found the grain to be very small. I expected bigger one. ;)</p>

<p>I'm not sure whether it is developer or film, but despite Ryoya's fine images I too think that the highlights (admittedly an important part of some of his high contrast images) are too blown out. Is this a question of exposure or developer, as Acros is normally a film of good latitude?</p>

<p>Janusz, that's a gorgeous image. What ISO did you rate the film at? I've been thinking of rating it at ISO 25 and shortening the developing time to 5 minutes to see what that looks like.</p>

<p>Dave, I used box speed. This is my somewhat imperfect D-H curve for the same roll as the photo.</p>