Sensitivity of HP5 to Overdevelopment

[Brian_Edwards]

Is is me, or is HP5 highly sensitive to overdevelopment? It seems as though developing for

more time than my normal development time (120 film, ISO 320, 8 minutes, D76 1:1, 20/

68, Jobo) causes my negatives to become far more grainy that they do normally. While I

would imagine that this would likely happen with most, if not all, black and white films to

some degree, is there anyone out there with a similar experience?

[h._p.]

HP5 has always been sensitive to overexposure, in my experience, as was HP4 before it. Oddly enough, I find that HP5 developed in Paterson's Acutol, really an acutance developer for slow/medium films, has a tighter grain structure than when developed in D76/ID11. I rate the film at it's full 400 ISO and develop for the recommended 10 minutes at 20C. It works for me.

[chris_waller]

I've never found it particularly sensitive to over-development. Are you developing by hand or is it a machine processor? Like most 'old technology' films it can take a fair amount of over-development although perhaps not as tolerant as Tri-X.

[lex_jenkins]

I found that HP5+ negatives were grainier than usual when developed in Microphen (even when not pushed hard). But I never noticed any problems in ID-11 at or near the nominal speed with either 35mm or 120.

 

However I've used only the standard intermittent agitation technique in stainless or plastic tank/reel systems with HP5+ and ID-11 (or any other developer I can think of offhand).

[lowell_huff1]

The temperature and adgitation in a jobo are far greater than by manual hand tank so the processing times are much less. With Clayton chemistry in a jobo that film would process for 5? minutes with a dilution of 1+14.

[lowell_huff1]

The temperature and adgitation in a jobo are far greater than by manual hand tank so the processing times are much less. With Clayton chemistry in a jobo that film would process for 5? minutes with a dilution of 1+14.

[Brian_Edwards]

At my settings and development time (ISO 320, 8 minutes at 20/68, D76 1:1) I get very little gain. The other day, I shot on a fairly drab day and increased my development time to 8:30 (all else equal) and noticed a significant increase in grain and contrast. I was hoping for a small increase in contrast, but was surprized at how much the grain had increased.