Ilford Delta 400

[scorpius73]

A friend of mine gave me a box of 50 rolls of Ilford Delta 400. It is dated for 2004 but has been in the fridge or freezer until yesterday when it was given to me. I will test a roll to make sure it's good though. For developers I have Rodinal, HC110 and TMAX RS. My question is does anyone have any favorite developers or dilutions mentioned that I should try?

 

[titrisol]

Ye olde Delta400 was a finicky film
Give it a shot, my guess us that TMAX will give you very good results at box speed or higher.
Rodinal was very interesting shooting at 200 and developing in 1+50 for creamy tones

A friend of mine gave me a box of 50 rolls of Ilford Delta 400. It is dated for 2004 but has been in the fridge or freezer until yesterday when it was given to me. I will test a roll to make sure it's good though. For developers I have Rodinal, HC110 and TMAX RS. My question is does anyone have any favorite developers or dilutions mentioned that I should try?

 

[Graham Line]

🙂 I was going to suggest HC-110 because that's what I'm most familiar with. Really, with 50 rolls in hand and three developers available, you're in the best possible position to find out.

 

[Chris101]

I use hc110, dilution h on delta 400. I love the structure of the grain with that combination - like trix in the amount of grain, but tighter and neater.

 

[Vincent.G]

I had one roll in the freezer and decided to shoot it.

Developed in HC-110, dilution H, for 10min at 20 degrees celcius. 10 inversions in first 30 seconds followed by 4 gentle inversions every minute thereafter.

I am not an expert but just wish to share my results and observations. I developed the Delta 400 together with a roll of Neopan 400 in a 2-reel Paterson tank and observed that the Neopan 400 has a clearer film base than Delta 400. Not sure if this is caused by long storage.

My Delta 400 negatives curl quite badly after drying and even more so after being cut into strips of 6 frames!

I am quite impressed with the tones it produces and it has a nice distinct grain structure.

Some sample shots below. They were taken on a Nikon F3/T with Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 Ai-S lens:


Sleep by Vincentの平和、愛および喜び, on Flickr


Pentax 67II by Vincentの平和、愛および喜び, on Flickr


Feeding Time by Vincentの平和、愛および喜び, on Flickr


Nikon F3 Titanium by Vincentの平和、愛および喜び, on Flickr