Pushing HP5+--what do you suggest?

I've searched the posts but am still unsatisfied. I'm trying to

find out what more exp. photographers have found as far as the best

combination of time/developer for best results with HP5+ pushed to

800 and 1600.

 

I've read conflicting information...some places say to use Ilford

chemicals because they manufacture the film, other places say to use

Edwal FG-7...but my experience has been limited to D-76, so I'm

ignorant of all the differences.

 

Sorry if I've wasted your time! Any direction is appreciated!

 

Chris

I'm certainly not the voice of experience being a relative returning newbie at bw development, but my standard film/dev combo for night time street stuff has been HP5+ at 1600 in Kodak HC-110 solution b for 11 minutes. I've heard lots of good things about Ilford DD-X, and will probably give that a try soon (if I can find it!)

 

I used to to mostly shoot Plus-X and Tri-X at normal speed (this was 15-20 years ago!), and dev in D76, so I really don't have a point of reference as to whether HP5+ in HC-110 is good or bad, but I do get scannable negs and I like the look. I'm shooting some Tri-X at 1250 and developing in Diafine, so hopefully I'll be able to compare and get a better idea.

Dear Chris,

 

HP5+ is very "pushable". The reason you haven't found one extremely popular answer is that it pushes well in many developers. Ilford suggests DD-X or ID-11/D-76 for 800 and DD-X or Microphen at 1600. The HP5+ data sheet gives starting times for lots of different developers at 800 and 1600.

In my opinion, HP 5 is the best and most versital film made by Ilford. We recommend Clayton F76 plus Developer to push one stop:

Dilute: 1+19 Time: 12 minutes Temperature: 75?F

For the next stop: add 10% more time to 13? minutes.

Diafine should produce nice results at 800 and may do well enough at 1600, but I have not gone over 800 with this combo. I believe that Lex has some examples of HP5+ in Diafine in his folder if you want to see some examples.

 

- Randy

In my experience there is not a huge variation among developers among the quality of results obtainable for a one stop push with a traditional ISO 400 speed film like Tri-X. Diafine may be better than the rest. I can't be sure.

 

I would definitely be inclined to use "something special" for a two stop push, though. DD-X, Microphen, and XTOL are probably all pretty good choices.

 

Concering Lowell's suggestion - I know he represents the manufacturer but I would be sufficiently concerned about processing film at 75 degrees for an extended period of time (more than 12 minutes) that I would at least test his recommendation on an unimportant roll. It will probably be just fine, but why not be sure?

 

I have a friend who recently processed some TMX sheet film in TMAX RS developer for EI 800 (not a typo...yup, 800 - why? No idea, but he did) at 75 degrees for 11 minutes and the emulsion almost sloughed right off the film.

I've had good results at e.i. 1600 with straight D23 for 17 minutes, butI suspect that any standard developer would be OK.

Pushes very nicely to 1600 in Ilfotec DDX, IMHO.<div></div>

Definitely go with Ilfotec DD-X if you can beg, borrow, or steal some. This is a great liquid

concentrate for pushing any film or to bump nominal speed. Just use the

recommendations on the bottle's printed literature. I still have a stash, but I'm holding on

until Ilford starts producing it again.

Ilford's DD-X is a very good speed increasing developer which works well if you want to push HP5+ (and many other films). Microphen is a close second.

 

The problem is that at the moment, there are very few -- if any -- places in the U.S. which have DD-X OR Microphen. Restocking is expected by mid-June, but that won't help you (or me!)

 

If you don't mind mixing up 5 liters of stock solution, you might try Kodak XTOL. It is a speed increasing developer and gives reasonably good results with FP4+, HP5+, Delta 100, Delta 400, and various Kodak films.

 

If you decide to use XTOL, use your search engine to find something called the "Unofficial XTOL" page. Lots of information there.

 

Good shooting.

 

/s/ David Beal ** Memories Preserved Photography, LLC

I've also had good results with Xtol diluted 1:2. A couple of examples at EI 1,000:<P>

<center><image src="http://mikedixonphotography.com/angelbw02.jpg"><image src="http://mikedixonphotography.com/farrahbw03.jpg"></center>

The DD-X spigot appears to be flowing again, I just spotted a bottle at the Cambridge, MA Calumet store, and they had been out for at least a month.

I agree with John. The supply of DDX appears to be back on schedule. Both the local Hunt's photo and Adorama seem to have it back in stock.

 

Sincerely,

 

Hany.

My suggestion? Don't push. Why risk getting lower quality by pushing when it's just easier to bring several rolls of different speeds. When I step out the door, I carry 25, 50, 100 (or 125), 400, and 3200.

Like they taught me in Boy Scouts, be prepared! I shoot medium format so once I'm at my shooting location I load one back with the slowest film I can hand hold, then I either load a second back with a faster film if I know I'm going to keep shooting as the light falls or I just wait and see where my mood takes me. If you shoot 35mm and don't have a spare body to pre-load with faster film, maybe you can try to rewind the roll you're in the middle of and load a faster roll. Just my .02

Regards,

Marc

Well, a 3200 film <i>is</i> pushed. On <a href="http://www.ilford.com/html/us_english/pdf/push%20processing.pdf">Ilford's website</a> they admit that Delta 3200 is really an ISO 1000 film.

I have pushed HP5 in Microphen to 3200.

It was not that bad, though I lost a lot of shadow detail. The grain is definately very (!) visable.

 

Normally, I prefer Tetenal Emofin for push processing but didn't try it with HP5.

Thanks everyone for the input! Keep it coming!

 

Chris

 

P.S. Marc, I like your theory of "be prepared", but being financially challenged, I am forced to follow the philosophy of "get the shot with what you've got"!

Lars: try pushing HP5+ in Xtol. I don't have HP5+ in Microphen experience, but I get much larger grain in Microphen than in Xtol, at least for Delta 3200. I expect this for HP5+ too, though you never know. The downside to Xtol 1:1 is I have to develop for about 30 minutes to get E.I. of 6400. Microphen offers shorter times, but the grain is HUGE.

I'd say DD-X (if you can find some) or XTOL (easy to find but you've got to mix 5L of the stuff) are the best ways to go.

 

Microphen will, apparently, give you better shadow detail at the expense of more grain. But it's impossible to find it right now.

No examples of HP5+ in Diafine in my folders, alas. I prefer Tri-X over HP5+ for pushing. HP5+ seems to deliver somewhat better results at around 200 so that's where I use it.