Developement of FP4+ when the sun is back

[matti]

After the winter with Diafine and Tri-X i tried two rolls of FP4+, one at 200 that I developed in Diafine with fine results. This is the first time I try FP4 so I want to try out different things. As the day was quite sunny with deep shadows and snow, I exposed the other roll at 80 without really deciding how to develop it. (Probably I should have started with 125 that it said on the box as a start but...) So can anyone help me with suggestions?
I have D76 and the Rodinal clone Calbe R09. I would like to try R09 if anyone else thinks that is a good idea and can give me some pointers on dilusion and time.

/matti

 

[FrankS]

The contrasty situation that you photographed is best handled by Diafine, I think.

 

[jonasv]

Rodinal in combination with FP4+ rated at 80-100 ISO is a personal favorite of mine, so I'm sure the R09 will be great.

 

[matti]

Thank's all! This forum is the best! I'll try it out at 1+24 in 7.5 min.
Frank: Yes I did like it at 200 in Diafine, it worked great. But I suppose you don't mean I should try the filme exposed at 80 in Diafine, do you?
/matti

 

[FrankS]

That's only 1 and 1/3 stop over-exposed, no problem for B+W neg film. How many rolls of FP4+ do you have to develop? It'd be interesting to try all 3 developers to see the results.

 

[markinlondon]

Matti,

try Rodinal 1+50 for 10mins, this is one of my favourite FP4+ recipes EI80 as well. This gives thinnish negatives suitable for a condenser enlarger. Doesn't C09 use a different dilution to Agfa Rodinal, I remember something like use 1+40 instead of 1+50?

Mark

 

[matti]

The results!

The results!

So, I tried the fp4+ in the Calbe developer at 1:40 at 10 mins. Check out the attatched pics. It was a bit harder to scan the "Rodinal"-negs for some reason. Maybe it was just me not having a good day with vuescan. (Anyone have a better idea how to expose with Vuescan than to use the different film-settings?)

Conclusions
- I am quite impressed with the resolution of the film compared to Tri-x.
- I am a bit surprised that the grain is so small with Calbe compared with Diafine.
- Calbe seems to give nicer middle tones than Diafine.
- Oh, and I LOVE my minolta 5400 🙂

The pics had their curves adjusted.

1. Diafine (iso 200). 2. Diafine at 100% 3. Calbe (iso 80). 3. Calbe at 100%.

So, what do you think? Any suggestions on how to fine tune things? Maybe I'll shoot the third roll at 125 and develop in D76 as Frank sugests. It depends on the weather. Or maybe I'll try out some efke 25 that has been sitting in the fridge and tempting me for a week now 😎 .

/matti

 

[matti]

One more from the Rodinal roll. A self portrait! I don't know what to think of this film+dev combination. How do I stop changeing the curves in Photoshop? 😱

/matti