B&W at 1600 -- Best Choice?

Andrew Sowerby

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Any recommendations for B&W film to be shot at 1600 and developed in D-76? Better to go with Tri-X or 3200 Tmax? Will Tmax work in D-76? Should I be considering offerings from Ilford or Fuji? I'm looking for high contrast and (relatively) low grain. Thanks for any advice.
 
So you want high contrast? Then you'll want to either push a slower film (TXT, probably) or perhaps use Fuji Neopan 1600, which is a very contrasty film, considering its intended EI range.

Shooting TMZ @ 1600 would give you relatively low contrast results (well, perhaps normal contrast is a better desc).

D76 is _not_ a great developer for pushing, keep in mind.

allan
 
if you're going to pull T-max 3200 to 1600; I would suggest D-76 or Tmax developer.
If you want to shoot Neopan 1600 (an awesome 1600 film imho) then you can use Xtol.

I have a couple rolls of Neopan to dev today that I shot @ 3200 - I'll post some scans once I dev and dry them.

Cheers
Dave
 
try something in xtol :) something = hp5+ / trix / neopan 400 / neopan 1600
 
TMZ in FX-39 1:9 for 14 min@72deg. Plenty of shadow detail, reasonable and very sharp grain. Also keeps highlights from going nutso.
 
As always depends on how you want the end result to look and subject matter, for me Tri-x and HP5+ in D76/ID11 give me the results I'm usually after. Photo below from my gallery was tri-x at 1600 in ID11 straight, I think.
 
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When developed correctly and exposed at ISO 2000 (shot #1) (though sometimes it seems like 2400 looks better (shot #2)) in Diafine, Neopan 1600 looks great.
 
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Wow! looks good. I'm eagerly awaiting my first ever roll of Neopan back from the developers, but am really hoping to start developing my own.

Xtol eh? How does the resultant neg scan using a good film scanner, does anyone know?

Andy
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I'll try Neopan 1600 in Xtol and compare it to Tri-X at 1600 in D-76 (because I've got plenty on hand).
 
My sister is on the court for Winterfest (the high school winter royalty thing) and I'll be taking some photos with the rangefinder. I'm taking the Canon with me. I'll be using HP5 shot at 800 and dipping it in Diafine. May shoot a roll of Tri-X, too, probably at 1250. Dunno yet.
 
As promised, Neopan 1600 @ 3200 dev'd in Xtol @ 19C - Canon 50mm @ 1.4, Leica IIIc, I believe it was 1/15 or 1/10.

First image is overall shot, second image is 100% crop of scanned neg; subject's left eye in detail.

Dave
 
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