Jesse3Names
Established
Hi all,
I just got my darkroom 35mm developing gear from B&H yesterday and am trying to figure things out for when I get back from a camping trip near Stanley, ID in the Sawtooth Mountains this weekend. It's only overnight, but I have a goal to shoot 3-4 rolls of 35mm b&w film with my Nikon S3 RF. I currently have 2 rolls of T-Max 100, 2 rolls of Tri-X, 1 roll of Acros, and 1 roll of Delta-100; the goal, specifically, is to shoot 1 of each. I also have a roll of Provia 100F, which I may toss in my Canon A2 and shoot with my ultra-wide Canon 16-35/2.8L II lens.
I bought Adox Adonal (Rodinal formula) and Kodak XTol to develop and PF TF-4 to fix (no stop bath necessary). I also bought LFN to thin out the final distilled wash water. I still have some questions, though.
(1) Does developing for longer at a higher dilution generally give better results in daytime landscape images (i.e. lower grain, smoother tonal gradation, higher acutance, etc.)? Of course developer matters - Adonal (Rodinal) will give higher acutance than XTol, but is this the general case? For example, on Kodak's Xtol development chart for their film types, they list times with working solution strength and also 1+1 dilution. Would using the longer time with 1+1 dilution give cleaner results for my b&w landscapes?
(2) When MassiveDevChart (MDC) development notes say "minimal agitation," does that necessarily mean stand development? Is there some traditional agitation sequence and some traditional minimal agitation sequence and then stand development (all separate things)?
(3) How do the ISO 100 films I have do with pulling to EI 50? Have you guys seen better pulling results with Rodinal or XTol? Another example from Kodak's official Xtol development chart - They list the same time for "EI 25/50." That's a full stop of light difference! Does that mean it doesn't matter if you pull it 1 or 2 stops, you develop for the same time and achieve nearly identical results? Something smells fishy about that, but obviously I have no real film experience so I'm asking 🙂
I'm sure I'll think of other questions over the next few days so I'll try to include those in replies to this thread. In advance, thank you!
Cheers,
Jesse
I just got my darkroom 35mm developing gear from B&H yesterday and am trying to figure things out for when I get back from a camping trip near Stanley, ID in the Sawtooth Mountains this weekend. It's only overnight, but I have a goal to shoot 3-4 rolls of 35mm b&w film with my Nikon S3 RF. I currently have 2 rolls of T-Max 100, 2 rolls of Tri-X, 1 roll of Acros, and 1 roll of Delta-100; the goal, specifically, is to shoot 1 of each. I also have a roll of Provia 100F, which I may toss in my Canon A2 and shoot with my ultra-wide Canon 16-35/2.8L II lens.
I bought Adox Adonal (Rodinal formula) and Kodak XTol to develop and PF TF-4 to fix (no stop bath necessary). I also bought LFN to thin out the final distilled wash water. I still have some questions, though.
(1) Does developing for longer at a higher dilution generally give better results in daytime landscape images (i.e. lower grain, smoother tonal gradation, higher acutance, etc.)? Of course developer matters - Adonal (Rodinal) will give higher acutance than XTol, but is this the general case? For example, on Kodak's Xtol development chart for their film types, they list times with working solution strength and also 1+1 dilution. Would using the longer time with 1+1 dilution give cleaner results for my b&w landscapes?
(2) When MassiveDevChart (MDC) development notes say "minimal agitation," does that necessarily mean stand development? Is there some traditional agitation sequence and some traditional minimal agitation sequence and then stand development (all separate things)?
(3) How do the ISO 100 films I have do with pulling to EI 50? Have you guys seen better pulling results with Rodinal or XTol? Another example from Kodak's official Xtol development chart - They list the same time for "EI 25/50." That's a full stop of light difference! Does that mean it doesn't matter if you pull it 1 or 2 stops, you develop for the same time and achieve nearly identical results? Something smells fishy about that, but obviously I have no real film experience so I'm asking 🙂
I'm sure I'll think of other questions over the next few days so I'll try to include those in replies to this thread. In advance, thank you!
Cheers,
Jesse