raytoei@gmail.com
Veteran
As part of researching on getting shadows with little details, i came across an interesting article on using tri-x at ei600 and developing it in Microdol-x for a very noir look.
( http://shutterbug.com/techniques/film_processing/0299sb_expand/ )
Another diagram I came across compared grain, sharpness and shadow details across developers several developers. Microdol-x is tops for fine grain, worst (or best depending POV) shadow details and worst for sharpness. (Not surprisingly, Xtol is tops or near tops for all three categories)
Another important point made by users of Microdol-x was the dilution with 1+3 was the most desirable but affected by long development time. Developing at stock would often result in loss of speed and general "mushiness".
I found freestylephoto.biz sound microdol-x under the name of legacypro mic-x. This came in power form and mixed with 3.8L (1 gallon) of water to make a stock solution of Microdol-x.
Armed with this information, I developed a roll of Tri-x at ei 250, 400 and 650. The first picture shows the ei600 with default scanner settings.
I then used a unique film Fomapan 400 to develop in Microdol-x. But I found the times for development only at stock and not at dilution levels.
Needless to say, fomapan 400 + undiluted microdol-x = major loss of resolution. Most of the pictures looked mushy, blurry with weird light effects, not dissimilar image quality from a lomo camera. The best picture I could muster up is fond in attached picture 2. I conclude that Fomapan 400 and Mic-x are best kept apart.
My next stage is to replicate the effect in Tri-x at ei 640 and perhaps Plus-X as well.
My development time:
8.0mins (was 8.5 mins previously) at 30C (!) tap water.
100 ml stock solution with 300ml water to make 400ml syrup.
Initial 30sec agitation followed by 2-3 inversions every minute. (was 4 inv every min).
raytoei
( http://shutterbug.com/techniques/film_processing/0299sb_expand/ )
Another diagram I came across compared grain, sharpness and shadow details across developers several developers. Microdol-x is tops for fine grain, worst (or best depending POV) shadow details and worst for sharpness. (Not surprisingly, Xtol is tops or near tops for all three categories)
Another important point made by users of Microdol-x was the dilution with 1+3 was the most desirable but affected by long development time. Developing at stock would often result in loss of speed and general "mushiness".
I found freestylephoto.biz sound microdol-x under the name of legacypro mic-x. This came in power form and mixed with 3.8L (1 gallon) of water to make a stock solution of Microdol-x.
Armed with this information, I developed a roll of Tri-x at ei 250, 400 and 650. The first picture shows the ei600 with default scanner settings.
I then used a unique film Fomapan 400 to develop in Microdol-x. But I found the times for development only at stock and not at dilution levels.
Needless to say, fomapan 400 + undiluted microdol-x = major loss of resolution. Most of the pictures looked mushy, blurry with weird light effects, not dissimilar image quality from a lomo camera. The best picture I could muster up is fond in attached picture 2. I conclude that Fomapan 400 and Mic-x are best kept apart.
My next stage is to replicate the effect in Tri-x at ei 640 and perhaps Plus-X as well.
My development time:
8.0mins (was 8.5 mins previously) at 30C (!) tap water.
100 ml stock solution with 300ml water to make 400ml syrup.
Initial 30sec agitation followed by 2-3 inversions every minute. (was 4 inv every min).
raytoei
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