HP5+ in Rodinal vs Ilfosol S

jmilkins

jmilkins

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Hi Folks

Advice appreciated - I'm returning to this after 10 years:

I will soon be developing several rolls of HP5+ rated at EI400 and have the choice of Rodinal @1 + 25 or 50 or Ilfosol S ....

Can anyone give me an idea of differences between the soups in terms of their effect on the emulsion, and any preferences / recommendations you might have?

I seem to recall vague information that Rodinal accentuates the grain or edge accutance? More than Ilfosol?

Thanks in advance.
 
Rodinal is a mild acutance developer, meaning that it increases grain and apparent sharpness So you're HP5 will be sharper but also grainier. I have heard that Rodinal and HP5 is not a good combination but I've also seen results here on RFF to the contrary. YMMV.

I don't know whether Ilfosol is a solvent or acutance developer. From the name I guess it's the former. Solvent developers work by dissolving the edges of grain, reducing grain but also reducing sharpness.

allan
 
I haven't tried Rodinal, but I've had bad experiences with Ilfosol, since the keeping properties are next to nothing. I bought a bottle of Ilfosol, and was quite happy with the results, the first rolls were beautiful. But the effectiveness of the developer declines very rapidly, and I found out the hard way, with a roll that came out underdeveloped, presumably because of reduced developer strength. So my advice is if you're gonna go with Ilfosol, use it up quick!
 
Hp5+ in Ilfosol has been my standard combo for years. The results are very normal and standard. I believe that Hp5+ in Rodinal will end with very grainy results.
 
What Frank said. You'll be much happier with HP5+ in Ilfosol ... unless you're looking for nasty grain.

Peter
 
boarini2003, that's very odd because Ilfosol has kept fresh extremely well for me. Did you dilute it all, or keep it undiluted until use?

Apparently D76 begins to oxidise once it is mixed with water, and has a short shelf life unless sealed in a full and air tight container.

The Ilfosol I let sit for too long became obviously reddish brown. No chance of accidental use of exhausted Ilfosol in my experience.
 
I haven't done HP5 in Rodinal in years, so can't comment. But grain in Rodinal is highly dependent on dilution and agitation.
 
Unlike Tri-X, which does surprisingly well in Rodinal, my results with HP5 and Rodinal were not pleasant. The grain is too large. OTOH, I've found HP5 and HC-110 to be a sweet combination.

Gene
 
Yeah, I was just going to mention HC-110 (or the Ilford version, Ilfotec) as an alternative. John stated he had access to Rodinal and Ilfosol, so I wasn't sure if any other developers were an option. I've used Edwal FG-7 for HP5+ and liked it. It's has more solvent action, so grain is finer but in my experience sharpness doesn't suffer all that much since it is generally used at 1:15 or 1:31.
 
After thinking about this, Rodinal might be OK if you're planning to pull HP5+ to something in the 160-200 ISO range. But it's not something I've tried, so I can't really say for sure.

Peter
 
Earl, I have some HP5+ ... maybe I'll give it a try tomorrow. I've had nice results pulling Silvertone 400 (APX400) to 200 in Rodinal.
I figure about 10 minutes at 1+50 should do for HP5+ at 200. I think 1+100 would probably be too low contrast.

Peter
 
If you use ilfosol, get your self small, dark, glass bottles (1oz and 2oz) and fill them to the top (no air) with the remaining/unused developer. Will last months.
 
I've done a roll of HP5 @ 400 in Rodinol at 1+50 & on @ 800 @ 1+25. Wouldn't recommend the 800 @ 1+25, which is what the box recommends, (see pic 1): ugly, ugly, UGLY grain. However, the 400 @ 1+50 (pic 2) wasn't bad at all.

Have you looked at Ilfotec DDX? I just picked up a bottle and haven't used it yet (hope to this weekend), but it seems to have been blended for higher speed Delta films. Should (I stress the "should" due to my lack of experience) would well with HP5.
 

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Thank you all for your advice - I really appreciate your comments. :)

I have 15 or so rolls to develop -been looking for my vanished Patterson or JOBO for a while now and evetually just bought another!

I'll try the Ilfosol first and keep the Rodinal for a different film or rate Hp5+ slower to try that.

I only bought a small bottle of Ilfosol, but thanks also for the dark, full bottle tip. I used to be one of those irregular shooters, but I'm hoping to up my B& W output to learn and get more in tune with an RF, so here's hoping I won' tgive my developer time to go off ;)
 
I used to rate both Tri-X and HP5 at 200. This was a long time ago with older formulations, likely. In fact, my experience has been that for most b&w films the manufacturer's published ISO is pretty optimistic, unless you really don't care for shadow detail.

A recent roll of the current Tri-X looked better at box rating than the older emulsion, but that was just on inspection of the negs, not printing.
 
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