Neopan1600 and Rodinal

Juan Valdenebro

Juan Valdenebro

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I just enlarged a Neopan1600/Rodinal frame, well, half of it, to 8x10, and it has very little grain, I'm amazed, almost no grain... I can see it only from close, and it is quite sharp... But so really small!

Anyone having almost no grain with Neopan1600/Rodinal?
Anyone knowing if the film's grain was modified these last years?

I took an old print to compare, and it has less grain than an 8x10 print from a whole frame shot with HP5/ID-11(1+1) !

?
 
I love Neopan 1600 and I love Rodinal but would never consider using Rodinal to develop 1600 - that whole assumed grain thing. Very interesting. I might try. Did you do anything special? Or did you follow the Massive Dev Chart?
 
Juan,

What speed did you expose the Neopan 1600 at and what dilution/time Rodinal combination did you use.

Currently, I expose it at 640 indoors and use Xtol stock with some grain but not too much for my tastes. I would expect Rodinal to cause some speed loss.
 
Years ago I developed N1600 with ID-11, and tried it also with solvent developers when hoping less grain (didn't like it!) but never was its grain close to this... I guess several factors helped in the same direction (although precisely I wanted grain...) Maybe as color negative, avoiding underexposure helps for finer grain. I believe it's 640 for most developers I used on it before, but as I use a dark yellow filter (1 ½ stops), I metered handheld 2 stops below, at 160, thinking of some Rodinal speed loss too... As it was midday with direct sun, and the subject was in the shadows but surrounded by light, the scene's tough contrast made it “one of those”... So I shot starting on metering, 1/500 f/11, and opening by half stops, shot until reaching metering in the shadows, 1/250 f/8. Five shots.


My contacts (near pure black film base) showed #4 was the best exposed frame for the given development. That shot was 1/250 f/8 ½, and that's 1 ½ stops more than 160, near ISO64! This means that the supercontrasty by nature N1600 can hold a mixed scene with a wild exposure and a short development. No big news as a concept, but what's unexpected (to me) is that even that delicate film could do it, and with Rodinal, and with almost no grain... Then, developing:


It was 1+50 for 6 minutes, 20ºC, with 5 gentle invertions first, and 5 more in the middle (minute 3). No more.


Maybe it's not that strange, and any film would react the same way... Pulling is a real thing, at least, unlike pushing...
 
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Pulling film by overexposing and shortening developing time reduces grain, sometimes quite a bit. That is why you got such fine grain results.

I should say though, that in high school I developed some Neopan 1600 in Rodinal and really liked the tonality, and the grain was not bad. I have not used that film in over 15 yrs now, and just ordered some from Freestyle to try again against my usual EI-1600 film, Tmax 3200.
 
I don't have a scan handy but I shot some NeoPan 1600 @ IE 1000 and developed with Rodinal. The time and dilution should be on the neg sleeve. One shot in particular was enlarged to 11x14" and I was very happy with the results. Grain was definitely there but it was very tight and overall had a really nice look.
 
I quite like this combination...I usually use 1:50 and do what the massive dev chart sez.

3177042727_70a2150a5a_o.jpg
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
Pulling film by overexposing and shortening developing time reduces grain, sometimes quite a bit. That is why you got such fine grain results.

I should say though, that in high school I developed some Neopan 1600 in Rodinal and really liked the tonality, and the grain was not bad. I have not used that film in over 15 yrs now, and just ordered some from Freestyle to try again against my usual EI-1600 film, Tmax 3200.
Click to expand...

I rate Neo 1600 at 640 normally, so a stop faster than neo 400 for me. I find it useful to see the neo 1600 as between regular 400s and the badged 3200s, like D3200, which has about a stop more real speed to my eye than the 1600 fuji.

If you want tight, crisp but not excessive grain, Xtol is wonderful, but if I recall, you use Rodinal and Tmax devs?
 
Hmm... I am a fan of both Rodinal and Neopan 1600, but was always told about the grain... Perhaps I should try when I have an exposed film that I would not mind to ruin.
 
Tried this last night. @ 1600 1:50 8min

Scan-111107-0020.jpg

Hex 50/1.2
 
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Thread from the dead.

Have two rolls of Neopan 1600 (expired 2011 and 2012) and a busload of Rodinal.

Lately people have gotten good results stand developing films in Rodinal 1:100 but under 20ºC, to keep grain down.

Anybody happen to have tried this with Neopan 1600 and Rodinal? I'd be interested in your MO and results.

thanks.
 
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