Ilford Delta 100

[ed1k]

Hi,
I'm curious if anyone here shoots delta 100. How it's comparable with Agfa APX 100 or Efke 50? What I have read so far tells me it should be small grain b&w film for general photography. And is there any difference in processing of delta 100?
Thanks,
Eduard.

 

[peterc]

I have a dozen rolls waiting to be tried. Ilford says 14 minutes in 1:50 Rodinal, while Agfa recommends 16 minutes. I guess some experimentation will be in order.

Peter

 

[ed1k]

Peter, that means you're also interested in this question. The only difference I am going to buy some film tomorrow and you already did
BTW, I see the next alternatives: Ilford Pan F Plus 50 ISO and Ilford FP4 Plus 125 ISO. Not sure if I realy want Delta. Heard a lot about delta, wonna try... that's why, probably.
Thanks anyway. I am going to try my homebrew developer, parcel with chemicals is on its way from Quebec.
Eduard.

 

[peter_n]

Eduard take a look at these articles over on PN:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00BcH9&tag=

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00ENZf&tag=

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0051T2 (see the post by Charles Santarpia at the end)

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00DQSd&tag= (Efke 25 vs. Delta)

 

[GeneW]

I shot my last remaining roll of APX100 today and will also be looking for a good iso100 replacement. I've had decent luck with Acros and the one roll of TMX100 I shot looked good, but I've not tried Delta 100 yet. Let us know how your experiments go!

Gene

 

[back alley]

i used the delta films when i was shooting medium format and was very happy with the results.
i much prefer delta to tmax as tmax seemed a bit more 'harsh' (for lack of a better word) and the delta was easier to process.
in medium format i used ilfosol s and ddx as developers.

sorry i have no examples.
joe

 

[peter_n]

I shot my last remaining roll of APX100 today and will also be looking for a good iso100 replacement. I've had decent luck with Acros and the one roll of TMX100 I shot looked good, but I've not tried Delta 100 yet. Let us know how your experiments go!

Gene

Gene I've been reading Roman's comments over on PN about the closeness of Fomapan 100 to APX 100. He thinks they are very very close with maybe the Foma film being ever so slightly grainier.

You can get Arista.Edu Ultra at Freestyle for $17/100ft roll. That film is rebadged Fomapan 100.

 

[GeneW]

Thanks Peter. It's one I'll keep my eye on. I prefer not to bulk load if I can avoid it.

Gene

 

[peter_n]

They have it at $1.89/roll too...

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/sc_prod.php?cat_id=&pid=1000000835

 

[GeneW]

Thanks for the Freestyle link! That's beginning to look interesting ...

Gene

 

[peter_n]

Gene see this post: Roman Sonnleitner, Nov 15, 2005; 04:47 p.m. for his comparison of APX 100 to Fomapan 100 in the link below.

Substitute for Agfa APX 100

 

[ed1k]

Thanks everyone,
Tomorrow I will see what they have at Henry's and post what I get Can't promise some examples this year though.

 

[bobofish]

I have only the highest things to say about Delta 100 and 400 both.

For several years now, I've used precious little but those two films, but I've tried just about everything...Tmax, Tri-x, all that jazz. Fuji sent me a couple of rolls of their finest, so we'll see...but I'm willing to bet that all around, the Delta will be my huckleberry.

D-100 is a very fine grain film, but extremely flexible. I can push it quite a bit (Ilford only recommends to 200ISO, but I've successfully pushed much higher) and depending on the developers you use, and your techniques, you can pull some grain out of it quite easily.

D-400 is also my sweet huckleberry, because at proper developing times, it has fine grain, and good contrast. For my needs however, it can push very very well, and either create huge grain or surprisingly sharp. I've shot with it at 6400, and gotten some lovely results.

With the proviso: I like grain, I like very very high contrast, and in the last several years, I've only used Ilford developers.

So, if you are commited to other developers, others will ahve to chime in.

There are a lot of good films out there, and sometimes I feel like a putz for only using Delta, but it is so amazingly flexible, it's a joke. For example, I left a bulk roll of 100 and one of 400 in my balcony storage room for 3 years. Cold in the winter, hot hot hot in the summer, and I still get great negatives. I've also abused my negatives by leaving loaded cans in the sun for hours, and I get some very interesting results....the other Ilford films just don't have this kind of latitude for my uses.

 

[kaiyen]

The Delta films all have a much longer and flatter response in the midtones than traditional emulsions (at least according to reps from Ilford - I'm not a H&D curve guy in general). This means that you'll get really, really nice midtone separation, but the transitions in the shadows and the highlights look a bit different than what you'd expect if you're used to traditional emlusions. I've noticed this. It's great for landscapes, but some people don't like it for portraits.

I personally like Delta 100 very much for its incredible sharpness. I've been trying it with Paterson FX-39, which is, according to some, optimized for t- and e-grain films. High sharpness and relatively low grain. Great acutance.

Efke 25 & 50 are next on my list to try. I might pick up a bulk roll of Formapan as well.

allan

 

[Andy K]

I use the Delta 100/Rodinal 1+25 combination a lot throughout the summer, here is an example of a photograph made from a neg developed in this combination. The Delta 100 was developed using Rodinal diluted to 1+25 for 9 minutes agitating by one inversion (5 seconds) every 30 seconds at 20 degrees C. In winter I switch to HP5+ and Rodinal 1+25.

 

[ed1k]

Andy, thank you for photo and detailed description of development technique used. Allan, thank you for your comments. I think I see what you mean, I'd expect more contrast image from traditional emulsion under those conditions (sunny day and 1+25 Rodinal). Can't say Delta 100 image isn't contrasty, but it has more details.
Eduard

 

[Mackinaw]

Here are a few more shots on Delta 100, both taken at an E.I. of 100 and developed in Rodinal at 1:50, 14 minutes at 68 degrees, 30" initial agitation followed by 5" agitation every 30 seconds. Nice film. Delta 100 and Efke 25 were the two B&W films I used the most this past summer.

Jim Bielecki

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I dislike hyper-generic thread titles. I guess that's just me.

Those are great shots, Jim. Great tones too.

 

[ed1k]

Thank you Jim for sharing those great examples. I guess my developing technique is more close to Rodinal 1+50. Actually I usually use dual bath developer, and I am going to try it with Delta 100 that I bought today. Ilford Pan F 50 was out of stock at Henrys, unfortunately. Gabrielma, I'm really sorry for generic title I was really interested in what people think about Delta 100 in a really broad sense. (My browser shows a small yellow window with a first sentence of question/discussion when I put mouse cursor on a thread title before I click to enter the discussion thread, so I have an idea if I ever need to enter).
Thank you guys,
Eduard.

 

[ray_g]

Erwin Puts seems to have done some film analyses too, including Delta 100 which he seems to like. I want to try it out with rodinal and hc110, when I get the chance. Keep us posted!