PlusX 125 @ 3200 ... help ???

[lordvader]

Hey all 🙂

So I spent a bit of time travelling, taking photos on the road and the like, and well, here's what happened :

I did a cave tour (Jenolan Caves, in NSW, Australia), and was taking various photos. Given how dimly lit everything is, I was using tri-x 400 @ 3200 (arista branded) . No probs there. Then it came time to change rolls. I thumbled through my bag, and grabbed what I thought was another roll of arista 400. It was dark, but I recognised the burgundy cart.

When it came time to change rolls again, it was slightly better lit, and my heart sank as I took a roll of arista 100 out of the camera.

So ... This is basically a 5 stop push. Is this possible ? Is there anything salvagable on this roll ? I'll do some experiments with a sacrificial roll of arista 100 @ 3200, but any suggestions as to how I may go about this ?

 

[Stelios]

It must be salvageable. I've done PlusX in rodinal 1+50 at 500ASA which came out quite well (for my tastes). Mind you that's only a 2 stops push. The massive dev chart has times for PlusX @1000 with Xtol (I don't know what developer you use). You can search there for starting times, but having tests is definitely the way to go. You can maybe start these tests with the 20% rule of thumb? add 20% of time for each stop.
This will be grainy but it's better than nothing, no? Never give up on film..

 

[lordvader]

I usually use Microphen when pushing tri-x or hp5 to 3200. I've also started using Rodinal, but not sure how that is for push processing.

 

[Stelios]

Tastes vary. I use rodinal for everything simply because I don't like having too many developers lying around, and rodinal lasts forever and a bit more. I've pushed films with it and liked it. But that's subjective. Probably Microphen is better for this, but i've never used it. Then there's also stand developing but that would just take ages to test.

 

[Thardy]

Below is a thread on flickr about pushing >3 stops.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/diybw/discuss/72157624865045311/

Good luck.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

lordvader,

i have done quite a bit of ISO 1000 in Plus X so I think it is possible to get some negatives at 3200, regardless of how scary and so many stops involved.

here's an example of a very sharp image taken on the XPAN.
Roll#226 Plus-x in xtol -ei1000 at around 13 mins @20c

at 100% crop, i could see a tiny stop sign in front of the motorbike.

hope this helps

raytoei

 

[randomm]

If you feel like experimenting, Caffenol-C-L or Caffenol-C-M might work... but if photos on it are very important, then I'd go with Microphen.

 

[ZeissFan]

We're you using Plus-X or Arista? I think those are different films. Or is the Arista 100 rebadged Plus-X?

I think Plus-X by its nature is grainy, so you would want a fine grained developer.

 

[lordvader]

Thanks for all the pointers !
When I'm done developing all the other film (that was exposed "correctly"), I'll spend some time experimenting with some of the suggestions I've seen.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

Lordvader: I second JSU's comments. While the negatives will be very thin, almost transparent, it is possible to get some good images out of it.

ZeissFan: Plus-X and Arista Premium 100 are the same. And it is not grainy at 100.

raytoei