blumley

To expand on Karp's second Sodium Metaborate bath, you can actually use this second bath with nearly any developer.

 

I do it quite a bit when I want to use HC-110 but I want a compensating effect without heavy dilution.

 

Simply develop in your normal developer for 1/2-2/3 normal dev time, pour, no wash, pour in second bath. Let stand for 3-4 minutes. This causes the developer in the shadows to continue developing while the developer in the highlights exhausts.

Excellent quality. As already stated, it's Pan-F+. My favorite soups for it are Diafine, PMK, and HC-110.

And just make sure you don't get ANY Bath B in Bath A. In that case you WILL get to throw it all away. (Bath A in Bath B is of course, just fine).

BWAHAHAHA!

 

Dean, kudos! I just got to work and this is one of the first things I've read. Thanks for getting my day off to a nice start!

I'll hop in here. (A little off-topic, but I'm wondering if anyone else has had the same experience) I've been using Diafine for quite a while and I've done some experimenting with developing times. I've actually found that some films can show a marked difference in development if you lengthen the time the film spends in bath A. I'm not sure if this is because more of the developer is 'absorbed' by certain films or what.

 

I've noticed this especially in HP5+. I shoot it at EI 800 if I'm souping in Diafine. If I develop for exactly 3 minutes (68degF) in both baths, I get perfect results. HOWEVER, if I soup for 5 minutes in bath A and 3 in bath B, the film is noticeably over-developed. I've even managed to blow highlights with this timing!

 

Anyone else experienced this?

Have to disagree with you there, David. Very often (especially with Ilford, in my experience), there are times when batches of film will have very pale frame numbers while the development was plenty sufficient. This is simply not a good indicator of whether film is underdeveloped.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I plan on continuing to update this post with results from different EIs and soups. Hopefully it will be helpful to those who haven't used this film before.

<p>I've seen a few people curious about the results available from

JandC Classic Pan 200. I decided I'd give it a shot myself. Rather

than give you my opinions, I decided I would scan my results and let

you take what you will from them.

 

<p>Note that there have been NO CORRECTIONS WHATSOEVER to these scans.

The scans were done on a CanoScan 5000F (terrible for film, I know)

at 48bit color. Images were then changed to grayscale in Photoshop CS.

 

<p>Here is my first batch of results:

 

<p>EI 200<br>

Souped in Rodinal 1+50 at 70degF for 10:30

 

<p><a href="http://home.comcast.net/~blumley/goosecorrect.jpg">Metered

exposure</a><br>

 

<a href="http://home.comcast.net/~blumley/goose1below.jpg">Metered

exposure closed down 1 stop shutter speed</a><br>

 

<a href="http://home.comcast.net/~blumley/goose1above.jpg">Metered

exposure opened up 1 stop shutter speed</a><br>

 

<a href="http://home.comcast.net/~blumley/goosegrain.jpg">100% crop

for grain detail</a><br>

Stefano,

 

I ordered a pound of Sodium Metaborate from Photographer's Formulary. I'm not sure if you have some sort of educational chemical supply in your area but they may have it as well.

<p>Do you have access to Sodium Metaborate? If so, I have a suggestion:

<p>

<li>Mix 2 heaping teaspoons of Sodium Metaborate (Kodalk) in 1L water.

<li>Soup Tri-X EI 1600 in Rodinal 1+50 for roughly 12:20 (at 20degC).

<li>DO NOT WASH.

<li>Dump Rodinal, pour in Sodium Metaborate bath.

<li>Let stand for 4-5 minutes.

<li>Pour out Sodium Metaborate.

<li>Stop, Fix, and Wash as normal.

<p>

The Sodium Metaborate will cause the developer in the high density areas to exhaust while the developer in the low density areas continues to work. This should keep your highlights from blowing and give good shadow detail. I use this method quite a bit when it would be impossible to achieve such results in a single bath.

Looks a little over-saturated to me. Of course, that's typical in consumer films.

You guys are out of hand (and it's cracking me up!)!

Andrew took the words right out of my mouth. Diafine all the way.

Tease!

In flat lighting it IS pretty bland. However, in high-contrast lighting, it has a smoothing effect. I keep it on-hand because of the speed gain without grain increase. I think it's worth it to have it on-hand but I rarely push film.

That's a 3 stop pull, not push.

How was it stored? Even though it is a high-speed film, 6 months is really not terribly long. You may be fine processing normally. A little bit of overexposure (1/2 - 1 stop) might not hurt either.

I may be the only one, but I really don't see that as a bad thing.

I haven't tried but I was planning to.

 

Perhaps you can share your developing success with us.

I always found Impresa's performance abysmal. My two cents, we're not missing much with it being discontiued.

That's three stops. (200, 400, 800). I'd never imagine pushing TMX that far. I'm guessing you're going to get some really serious contrast (which may be what you're going for, in which case, great!).

 

All that said, from my experience, the T-Grain films get VERY difficult to push after about 1+1/3 stops. I'm guessing to get reasonably good density, you're going to have to go to about 15-18 minutes at 75degF.

 

I wish you the best of luck with it. You're a braver man than I. With any luck, someone who's actually DONE it will pop in and give you some tips.

Andrew,

 

I think I'm missing what that has to do with the question at hand.

I'll agree with Thomas. Honestly, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if Fuji bowed out now. I love them for color but the only B/W product of theirs I like is Acros.

 

If I had to make a prediction, I'd actually expect Kodak to bow out before Ilford (I know this goes against popular opinion but I've never trusted popular opinion) and when Ilford finally goes, expect there to be a handful of the smaller companies manufacturing film.

 

I'd also expect the prices to begin going up exponentially. For now, I'll stick to Ilford and experiment with other films from smaller manufacturers. Hopefully, I'll find something I find comparable (hell, maybe better) before my favorite film company cuts production.

EI is Exposure Index. It's essentially the speed you rate you the film at while shooting. EI can be (and is often) different from the box-rated speed of the film. In most cases, film's 'true speed' is rarely the box-listed speed so you will often hear photographers say, for example, 'I shot Tri-X (rated ISO 400) at EI 200'.

Perhaps using a very dilute Sodium Met. bath for B would work better?

 

When you say you got OK results, could you be more specific? Too dense, too thin, too contrasty?