Microphen and TMY at EI 1600

[jb17kx]

<p>Hi everyone...<br>

Some theatre shooting recently has left me with a couple of rolls of T-MAX at EI 1600. I'd originally planned to soup them in my usual (for TMY 1600) Rodinal 1:25 for 12 minutes, but I discovered some unwanted Microphen at a friend's place, so I'm interested in trying that.<br>

Reading Ilford's Power Developers spec sheet it seems they don't specify a time at all for EI 1600 in anything other than ID-11. The Massive Dev Chart shows 13 minutes for 1:1, but I've heard that it's better to use 1:0 (stock) for pushes like this.<br>

Can anybody here offer me any advice as to what times and dilutions? If it helps I'll have either four or five 135 rolls in a Paterson SS4 tank, and I don't intend to reuse (if I do it'll be a week or two down the track for only one or two more rolls).<br>

Thanks in advance.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Microphen is my developer of choice for pushed TMY, which is an excellent film for pushing to 1600. I prefer it over Tri-X for pushing to 1600 or more (I've gone as far as 6400).</p>

<p>The baseline time for TMY at 1600 in Microphen at 1+1 dilution is 13 minutes at 68F. I've gone as low as 9 minutes at 80F (which was the coolest I could get my darkroom in Texas summers).</p>

<p>Stock solution of Microphen is the best choice for hard pushes, but TMY at 1600 is not a hard push and the 1+1 dilution will work just fine. But if you'd rather use Microphen stock solution try 10 minutes at 68F.</p>

<p>Start out with one roll to evaluate the results before committing the entire batch. Always a good practice with any unfamiliar materials.</p>

<p>You'll find several examples of pushed TMY in Microphen in my photo.net folder: <a href="../photodb/folder?folder_id=304490"><strong>TMY (T-Max 400) @ EI 1250-1600 in Microphen</strong> </a> , along with details describing how each photo was processed in the tab labeled "Details" under each photo. You'll note that I deviate considerably from the recommendations, usually based on personal experience. With Microphen I find it does little or no harm to give extra development. I've never experienced excessive contrast or grain as a result of giving a little additional development with film pushed in Microphen.</p>