Delta 400 / xtol development recommendations:

[anthony3]

I am about to develop some 120 rolls of Delta 400 and was wondering if I could get some recommendations concerning development time/temp for the finest grain. Also would appreciate fixing times and if stop bath is recommended. Finally, I thought I read somewhere that Illford didn't recomment pre-whetting the film but I would like to hear what you think about this.

Regards,

Anthony

[pete_caluori]

Greetings,

 

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I routinely use Delta 100 in XTOL and have used Delta 400 once or

twice. I used Kodak's recommended times for 400 in a rotary

processor and the negs came out fine. I never bothered to experiment

and test this combo, because I don't use it often. A prewet is not

recommended with XTOL in a rotary processor, presumably because as a

new developer it has been tested in this configuration and factored

in on Kodak's published charts. Notice their processing times are

different for rotary processing and hand inversion. As for grain, it

is what it is. To get different grain characteristcs, you're better

off trying another developer, though XTOL will offer very good

grain/sharpness characteristics.

 

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Regards,

[brian_hinther]

XTOL is a very good match for this film. Sharpness and gradation get

better while grain becomes more pronounced when you dilute it. Using

XTOL straight will give the finest grain, lowest sharpness and highest

contrast. I prefer it 1:2 and have found no reason to pre-soak.

 

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I generally use three changes of water in the course of a 2:00 water

stop. Delta isn't quite as hard on fixer as T-Max films. I use

around four minutes with a rapid fix.

 

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Good luck.

[john_hicks]

First of all, D-76/ID-11 1:1 would probably give you visibly finer grain than Xtol...but you'll still get rather fine grain with Xtol. Although I can't give you a development time I'd suggest using Xtol at 1:1 at least; full-strength Xtol gives the lowest EI and acutance.

 

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Use standard stop, 30 seconds or so.

 

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Fix in film-strength (1:3 or 1:4 depending on brand) rapid fixer three to six minutes depending on temperature with continuous agitation. Most fix problems with t-grain type films are caused by a combination of insufficient time and insufficient agitation.

 

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After the fix, bathe the film in an HCA for a couple of minutes. You can use either the store-bought stuff or make your own by mixing 20g sodium sulfite and 5g sodium bisulfite in a liter of water. Although you don't _have_ to use an HCA, it'll clear the dyes and you won't have magenta negs which people keep howling and panicking about.

 

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Wash 20-30 minutes.

 

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As for a prewet, Ilford generally recommends against it because their films incorporate a wetting agent in the emulsion and since a prewet may remove this wetting agent unevenly, uneven development may result. So don't do it unless a problem appears that may be solved by using a brief prewet.

 

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If you're using rotary processing, that problem may appear as airbells that aren't dislodged; in that case go ahead and use a prewet of about one minute. There's no need to prewet any longer than that.

 

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BTW, before you get too deep into testing Delta 400, there's a new version coming onto the market that's expected to be rather different than the current/old version.

[pete_caluori]

Greetings,

 

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You can find some info on Tmax (similar to Delta) and XTOL here:

http://members.home.net/hmpi/Misc/TMY/tmy.htm

 

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Regards