luis_martins

Hi,

 

I just bought a packet of 5L of Xtol but since I don't process that

much film (at least T-Max P3200 which is what I use this developer

for) I was wondering if it would be possible to mix the packet

contents in only 2.5 liters of distiled whater. Will it dissolve?

Will this improve storage time? At least I wouldn't have to store

five bottles and some valuable space in my darkroom would be saved.

 

Regards,

Luis

hi sam, give xtol a try. it is one of the few developers that combines fine grain, good acutancy and good film speed. i've been shoting hp5+ and process in xtol 1+1 with very good results. my prints on 12x16" (30x40 cm) show very good tonal gradation and very little grain.

 

before xtol i was using hc110, which gave fine grain but not so great acutancy and film speed.

hi tim, hp5+ is my standard 400 iso film and i can tell you that it has an anti-halation backing which has a purple colour. usualy the chemicals don't come out of the tank with this colour as happens to kodak films, which make my developer and fixer trun redish.

 

with ilford films, you need to fix the film for a bit longer to remove the anti-halation so the film base comes out clear, specialy with delta stuff, otherwhise it will be realy purple.

thanks jim, that is also my theory, that the my friend's film is to be blamed. i always use all my film developers one shot, so the developing process is consistent and i do the fixer test just like you described.

 

thanks everyone for your thoughts !

pavel: i'm 100% sure i put the film in the developer, otherwise the other roll of film wouldn't be developed either !

 

i'm talking about a perfectly processed film, of which i made contacts with a grade 2 filter and had rich shadow detail, good highlight detail and another roll of film with all the problems described above. both processed in the same tank, ie. at the same time, with the same chemicals ! (it's two reel tank)

 

[],

stephen: yes, my film was also hp5+, i processed for 12 minutes in xtol (1+1) at 20 degrees. ilford recomended times, which has always given me good results.

 

lex: that could be a reason, i'll tell that to my friend.

i'm sure of the above, but i can't remember which one was on top.

i remember having some problems with 120 films, not using enought soup, but this never happened again because i always use a bit more chemicals to prevent this.

 

i just remembered, my friend's film was in the bottom, i remember pulling my roll out and seeing how good they looked !

yes, both films were in the same tank, with enought developer, stop and fixer.

hi,

 

ilfostop, the stop bath from ilford, which has an indicator, ie. changes colour when going bad, doesn't smell as bad as others. actualy it doens't smell at all.

 

i notice that some of my films curl more than others, i believe one of the reasons is when i leave them in the trunk of my car on a hot day. after i cut and sleeve the film, if needed, i'll put them under a heavy book before making contacts.

 

[],

hi all,

 

yesterday i processed a roll of ilford hp5+ from a friend together

with one of my rolls. both shot at iso 400. the developer was xtol

(1+1) and the whole process went smoth and clean.

 

when i was hanging the film to dry i was shocked ! my roll was

perfect, as all the previous rolls i've done, but my friend's roll

was realy bad, i'd never seen anything like that before:

 

- the film base was milky, even after re-fixing, and i'd fixed for 5

minutes in the first time !!

- density was almost null, even the film tip which was exposed to

daylight wasn't as dark as the film tip from my roll !

 

what could have gone wrong ? was it a bad film ?

your opinions will be most welcome !! :-)

 

btw: this film had writen on it "safety film ilford hp5 plus", is

this a different stuff ?? this is bulk film, from a 100 feet reel.

 

[],

i've used xtol with good results. i found hc110 would give me too much grain ...

hi Al,

 

thank you for your sugestion on using slide film, i have a roll of provia 100f (i guess that one will do as well) that i've wanted to try for a while but haven't been able to.

 

kind regards,

hi Mark,

 

> Unfortunately, beginning photographers have a difficult time

> understanding the difference between �lack of contrast� vs. �lack

> of overall density.�

 

is there a test that i can do to determine what you stated above ?

something not as complicated as deep zone system kind of tests ?

 

thanks,

hi rob,

 

i thought you had to "underexpose and overdevelop" in order to get lots of contrast, just like to commented on the second photo.

why ?

 

i guess you could start with a high contrast film like tmx, expose it at 400 iso or even more and process with continuous agitation ....

 

and if you want to dry it realy fast, you could give it a final rinse in ethyl alcohol, light it and stop the combustion quickly !!! :-)

 

[],

i do believe that ilford pan 50 is ilford pan f+, you'll find it on digitaltruth.com as well. 1+1, 1+3, 1+n, means 1 part of developer plus n parts of water.

hi jose,

 

check: http://www.digitaltruth.com/chart/tables2/d76id11.html

or go to the main page: http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.html

and navidate from there.

 

i didn't see any times matching your exposure index, about 1/3 less than the advertised iso, but i do believe that you may use the published times and get good prints out of 1/3 overexposed negatives.

or you may reduce the dev times by 10% or so.

 

[],

Developer - Ilfosol S (1+9)

ASA - 1600

35mm Time - 9 min

Temp - 18C

 

Acording to the Massive Dev Chart @ http://www.digitaltruth.com/.

 

[],

I rate this film at 3200 ISO and process in Microphen for 10 minutes, 10% more than Ilford's recomended time. Grain is quite small for the speed and I usualy get good shadow and highlight detail.

ola hugo !! ;-)

 

there's ilfosol everywhere you go, even in fnac ...

as for colorfoto, they quit working with ilford this year as well as a few other shops due to some problems with the distributor, so it's getting more and more dificult to find ilford products in lisbon ...

 

good luck with your delta @ 25000 !! btw, why did you have to push it that far, i can't imagine having to push film to 25000 iso, did you forget your tripod at home !?!?

dear hugo,

 

do you mean you pushed delta 3200 to 25000 iso ?

are you in portugal ? where do you buy dd-x in portugal ?

 

[],

dear andrew,

 

i have successfully developed hp5+ @ 3200 with ilford lc29 folowing their recomended time. the negs where quite contrasty and grainy but i was able to get a few nice photos from those negs and would do it again if i had no other film available in my bag.

 

i agree that you'll probably get beter results with microphen, which is what i normaly use to process delta 3200 films since i gave up pushing hp5+ that much.

 

be aware that shadow detail will be almost inexistent and the negs will be quite thin so you may think you won't be able to print them until you put them under the enlarger.

 

[],

I forgot to mention that I am exposing HP5+ @ 400 ISO.

Hi Ken, I'm using dilution B just like Ann, i.e. diluting 1+31 from the concentrate bottle.

 

My equipment (from camera to enlarger) and techniques are the same, the only change in my process is the developer ...

 

Yesterday I printed a contact sheet of some old negatives processed in LC29 side by side with some processed in HC110 on the same sheet of paper just to find out that everyting is ok with my enlarger and paper processing techniques.

 

I believe that my camera is working ok but to test that I'll expose some film and ask a friend to process it together with his films ...

 

[],

Hi all,

 

Recently I was forced to change from Ilford LC29 to HC110 due to

availability issues and since then I've been getting much thinner

negatives.

 

I used HC110 (1+31) to process Ilford HP5+ and followed Ilford's

sugestion of 5 minutes @ 20 degrees, just like I'd followed for LC29

(1+19) for 6.5 minutes which yelded very good results.

 

With LC29 I've always had consistent results so I do believe that my

development technique is not the issue, but if you have any

recomendations I'm open to sugestions !!

 

The negatives processed in HC110 had fantastic shadow detail, which

means that the exposure is ok, but the highlights are quite thin,

which I believe is caused by underdevelopment.

 

I increased development time to 6.5 minutes (30% increase !!), which

gave better but still poor results.

 

On a contact sheet printed at grade 2, the exposure time that makes

the film base almost black causes a white wall to be mid gray.

 

With such a difference in development time (30%) from Ilford's

recomendation I'm starting to suspect of the developer, when I bought

it, it was alerady quite orange and not light yellow like the ones I

saw the other day at another shop.

 

I'm thinking of buying new developer today to experiment over the

weekend, but I'd like your opinions about the problem described above.

 

BTW, what are the advantages of using a higher dilution like 1+63

which I've been sugested on other threads. I believe it will have

some kind of compensating effect.

 

[],