One-shot fine grain developer?

[david.elliott]

Hello all,

Keith's thread about slow film got me thinking that it would be nice if I had some photos that did not have a bunch of grain. 😛

I basically do all my developing with either rodinal or diafine. I get a fair bit of grain even when shooting slower films that I develop in rodinal.

Is there a fine grain equivalent to rodinal? Something that I could one-shot and that preferably has a long life?

Thanks.

-David

 

[robklurfield]

Tmax? Perceptol?

 

[Leigh Youdale]

Rodinal is not a fine grain developer, but it's quite a good general purpose one. There are those here who equate it with Holy Water from the River Jordan, but nothing will shake their belief so you can look elsewhere for the truth.
People speak well of Diafine but there's quite a bit of information about different developers at http://stores.photoformulary.com/StoreFront.bok and as you're in the US it's probably a convenient source. I note you want one-shot but you don't say if you're OK with using a powder pack to make up a stock solution from which you then dilute to a working strength quantity. Depending on your answer you may limit or open up the possibilities.

 

[robklurfield]

Photoformularly's stash of soup mixes is rather astounding. Their online catalogue makes for interesting bedtime reading.

 

[DNG]

Xtol, Stock or 1:1

 

[david.elliott]

Thanks guys. Looks like I have a fair bit of reading up to do. 🙂

 

[calebk]

Is there a method to calculate the developing times for stock vs 1:1 dilutions of the same developer?

 

[alistair.o]

Hi David, for your perusal:-

http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/fine-grain-101-c.asp

Have fun

Al

 

[calebk]

Hi David, for your perusal:-

http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/fine-grain-101-c.asp

Have fun

Al

Strangely enough, Microphen does not feature on that site. Strange...

 

[alistair.o]

Strangely enough, Microphen does not feature on that site. Strange...

There you go (under speed increasing...)

http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/ilford-microphen-1l-354-p.asp

Al

 

[regularchickens]

I used Clayton F76+ for this for a long time. It does not have a long shelf life, however.

 

[calebk]

Hi David, for your perusal:-

http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/fine-grain-101-c.asp

Have fun

Al

There you go (under speed increasing...)

http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/ilford-microphen-1l-354-p.asp

Al

Righto. I thought it wass pretty fine grain but maybe its just me. Haha.

 

[tlitody]

tetenal ultrafin plus. Liquid concentrate lasts ages as you don't have to mix with water to create stock first, you mix striaght from concentrate. Produces very straight curve. i.e. very short toe so good shadow separation and fine grain.

 

[Mablo]

Check this out:

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/12037-Spur-HRX-3-Film-Developer-250ml

It has quite a long shelf life (much longer than the previous version) and used with several slow films it can make virtually grainless photos.

Some examples here: http://www.flickr.com/search/show/?q=HRX-3&m=tags&ss=2

 

[Monokrome]

tetenal ultrafin plus. Liquid concentrate lasts ages as you don't have to mix with water to create stock first, you mix striaght from concentrate. Produces very straight curve. i.e. very short toe so good shadow separation and fine grain.

Does Ultrafin Plus work well with T-Max films like TMY2 400?

 

[alistair.o]

Does Ultrafin Plus work well with T-Max films like TMY2 400?

I was wondering that. According to Matt at AG it does. See here:

http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/tetenal-ultrafin-plus-1l-603-p.asp

I recently used D-76 with TMY-2 and it was not too bad at all IMO.

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot to ask: Have you tried TMax developer at all? Any one?

Al

 

[tlitody]

Does Ultrafin Plus work well with T-Max films like TMY2 400?

I haven't tested with T-Max but it should because it was formulated for T-grain films. I use it with Ilford delta films. T-grain films need a kick in the shadows to avoid a long toe. It is similar in concept to DDX but is finer grained. Not quite as much natural speed as DDX but a better dev IMO, especially for fine grain.

Note there is Ultrafin and there is Ultrafin Plus. Ultrafin is not as fine grained as the Plus version.

 

[davidefontaine]

Is there a method to calculate the developing times for stock vs 1:1 dilutions of the same developer?

For xtol Kodak posts the dev times for both stock and 1:1 dilution in its data sheet. http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/j109/j109.pdf

 

[Jonathan]

When shooting Acros I love Rodinal, but for most other films (read HP5) I use Prescysol EF.
Both great developers. I still look at my favourite prints & what was used does not matter. If it's good, it's good!

 

[calebk]

For xtol Kodak posts the dev times for both stock and 1:1 dilution in its data sheet. http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/j109/j109.pdf

Hmm how about Microphen? I'm asking because their data sheet does not have timings for 1:1 for some films. particularly FP4+, particularly pushing FP4+. I've done it with Microphen stock and got rather fine grain.

Doing some reading up, I read that stock solution is probably still the best for pushing, but to some degree, dilution helps to lower contrast, so I'm thinking of trying it out, but I've got no data other than the timings for the stock solution.