Another first timer to B&W developing...

[wakarimasen]

Hello Folks,

I placed a successful bid on Ebay last week, which should ease me into the treacherous waters of film development:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=150358297487

One initial question: the film included is Ilford Delta 400 and the developer is TMax. Is this a good combination for a first timer, or would I be better sticking with an Ilford developer?

Best regards,
RoyM

 

[Keith]

Wow ... that was a great deal!

I notice that the digitaltruth site has times for this combo so you may as well give it a go!

Alternately D76 seems to work well with Ilford films. 🙂

 

[chippy]

Keith mentions the D76, that would normally be one of the first choices for a 'first timer', cheap (about half the price of tmax) and good for old timers as well really, but seeing how you got the Tmax dev you may as well use it (not knowing how much shelf life yours has, left, i think it lasts about 2 years from new unopened), you should get finer grain/sharper negs. great deal for a bunch of unused new stuff in their packaging--enjoy!!

 

[Rogrund]

What a deal! Good luck and have fun!

 

[Richard Ross]

That's a serious bargain! Tmax developer should work OK, alternatively there's Ilford ID11 (pretty much the same as D76) which is a powder developer, or Ilfosol 3 which is liquid. My personal preference is for liquid developers as they're easier to mix. Have fun!

Richard

 

[NathanJD]

Congratulations! what a bargain! i bought all of my development stuff from Silverprint although i bought 3 of those beakers to measure the dev, fix and stop in seperately. i went for an entirely Ilford chemical set though and develop in DD-X which has given me great results this far. i think i paid more for that patterson developing tank than you have for the entire bundle!

 

[Lilserenity]

You've done well there.

TMax will be fine for developing Delta 400. I personally like Xtol or D-76 (or ID11.)

D-76 seems to be my developer of choice at the moment, you can pretty much develop anything in it and get nice results. Xtol is also very fine grained but not as sharp and I personally prefer a balance between the two which D-76 gives. It's about £5 for 1 US Gallon/3.8l which is dirt cheap and if used 1+1 you will get 25 rolls developed in it (20p a roll, give or take the need for fixer, water and other gubbins.) It's not hard to mix either as you get 3l of water to 50-55c and then mix the whole packet in (it dissolves very easily) and then add the remaining 0.8l -- bob's your uncle, all done.

I develop pretty much all Ilford B&W in D-76, but for Kodak particularly Tri-X I'll use Xtol at 1+0 or 1+3 (you'll need a steel spiral tank for that, it can cause issues at that dillution on the plastic reels unless you agitate the mix a fair bit.)

Anyway I digress. Experiment with TMax and note the results with what you did, what dillution etc. If it starts working for you, you will know. It's best to learn something and learn it well rather than chase the magic bullet by trying a bit of everything all at once and having no clue what is better and having 25 litres of developer going bad because haven't settled on one or the other 🙂

Most of all, have fun!
Vicky