stan_rothwell1664886124

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ | | | | | What he said. Find yourself a classic portrait lens and maybe close it down a stop so you don't get vignetting (although wondering it THAT'S even an issue here). If you're shooting Nikon, the old 105mm 2.5 AI would be perfect. The ancient Soligor 135 F2 with a T-mount adapter would probably work for most other film SLR systems.

Dunno how it helps prevent water spots, but I'm sure it raises the IBUs a bit...

Based on my 32-oz (~1.8L) stainless steel Honeywell Nikor tank, I use 4 of the 120 reels then throw in an empty 35mm on top to keep them from banging around during my agitation cycles. That comes out to about 400mm volume for each 120 reel.

I have been getting back in the swing of doing this as well, although to me the 120 film is far easier than the 35mm stuff. Seems the big trick is to make sure the film is clipped in the center of the roll, and isn't pulling off to an angle. Two tricks I use to try to get this right: once I think I have the film end clipped in place, I use my thumb and middle finger to feel along the outside of the reel to try to tell if the amount projecting out from the spirals is the same on each side. In addition, I will try to unroll about 10-12 inches of the film off the spool and see if it feels like it's pulling or angled off to one side or another. I also listen carefully for little "snaps" which can indicate a kink, and if I think I have one, I gently feel the film surface (which should be the backing side) of what's already rolled to make sure there are no kinks in place, otherwise I will unwind it at least one revolution past the kind and start again.

My experience with TTL meters in my Nikon SLR bodies is that +1 stop exposure compensation for a Nikon R60 red filter (IIRC close to a 25A) works out pretty well. If I'm shooting my old clunker Mamiya TLR and metering with my Pentax 1 degree spotmeter, I have step-up rings that allow me to put a 52mm filter on both and use the same +1 stop rule. Otherwise, it's about a +3 exposure adujstment for the spotmeter reading with no filter.

I use an agitation scheme that is close to what Ilford specifies, 4 inversions of my SS tank in 10 seconds per cycle. I perform one agitation cycle immediately after the developer is added, then 2 additional cycles each 30 seconds, after that one cycle each 60 seconds. I also run my chemistry @ 72F/22C (adjusting time according), and tend to overexpose about a half stop. I tend to get reasonably contrasty negatives with Ilfosol 1:19 and HP5+, so it seems one or more of my practices here are helping to that effect.

Agree, but here in Phoenix AZ 20C (68F) isn't feasible. My home is maintained at 72F (22C) and I use bottled water, which I let equilibrate to the inside temperature before using, and have experienced no problems to date.

I have a very easy approach to avoid such confusion. Given that working developer solutions are far more light-sensitive than stop bath or fixer, I only use my "brown" or "black" bottles for developer, everything else is in clear bottles (albeit stored in a dark place when not in use). My first process step is usually a wetting agent, placed on the left rear side of my bathroom sink, with the developer dispensed to the right quantity for the given tank in use on the right side. Only AFTER developer is in the process tank do I switch out my bottles in the sink, placing stop bath on the left, fixer on the right. Simple approach for me, no problems ever.

I am using Ilfosol 3 here in Phoenix AZ (USA), where only during the last week or two have the daily high temps dropped below 100F (38C). Because there's no practical way of holding chemistry temps at 68F (the water temp runs about 75F here during the summer), I simplify my temp control by using bottled (either distilled or RO) water in gallon jugs, then hold it indoors in my apartment where the temp is pretty much 72 +/- 1 F. The Ilford chart tells me I need about a 15% reduction in time from 68F/20C, and based on developing about 50 rolls so far (a mix of Ilford, Tmax and Arista), it looks spot on as far as I'm concerned. FWIW, I'm processing my B&W film in a 50-year-old half-gallon sized (8 rolls of 135, 4 of 120) stainless steel Honeywell Nikor tank. Nice dense negs (I usually overexpose by about 1/2 stop), I'm pretty happy with my results.