Advice for developing delta100 with EI400

[Niall Bell]

All,
I’d like some advice/opinion re development of Delta 100.

I took insufficient HP5+ to Spain and had to use Delta-100 rated at 400 (needed that EI in order to hand-hold when using 25A filter). This was using 120 film.

I would like to develop the Delta-100 to minimise grain etc.

The Delta-100 data sheet indicates that one should use Microphen stock for EI400 exposures, but notes that negative quality will be compromised.

Has anyone experience of processing Delta-100 with an EI of 400, is Microphen the best option, or are other Ilford developers better? I had thought of using X-TOL; again anyone got experience of appropriate non-Ilford developers?

I’d be grateful for any advice.

Thanks,
Niall.

 

[titrisol]

I think Xtol would be a good alternative for this push.
You will lose some shadow detail, and you will get some grain (I do not know how the grain will look like) but you may get some decent images.



MDC has:
Delta 100 Pro Xtol stock 400 11.5 11.5 11.5 20C
Delta 100 Pro Xtol 1+1 400 14 14 14 20C
Delta 100 Pro Xtol 1+2 400 17.5 17.5 17.5 20C
Delta 100 Pro Xtol 1+3 400 20.5 20.5 20.5 20C

 

[mr_phillip]

Either Microphen or XTOL would be good choices - both give good speed and are great for pushing. I tend to find that T-grain films don't like to be pushed as much as older style emulsions, but Delta100 is a fairly robust film so should be ok. In truth, since Delta100 is such a fine grained film to start with, even pushed two stops it's unlikely to be much more grainy than your HP5+.

 

[maddoc]

I have once - accidentally - pushed ACROS 100 by two stops (rated as 400ISO) and a mixture of XTOL (1:1) and Rodinal (1:100) did the job quite well.