past 1600?

[Tom A]

A long, long time ago (in the 30's) when films rated at 40asa were considered "super speed" - there was a tecnique developed. You left yor film i sealed container (glass) with a couple of drops of liquid mercury! As the mercury vaporized, it migrated to the silver molecules. The true speed gain was about 1 stop (a true gain, not blocked shadows or pushed film!). You had to experiment with the time it sat in the jar.
In the 60's I decided to conduct an experiment. I left 5 rolls of Tri X in a canning jar with a couple of drops of mercury. I did a 24/48/72 etc test. The film was rated at 800. It did work, but you had to process within 24 hours after exposure to get the benefit. There was no visible increase in grain and the exposure latitude was inherently the same as the "standard" 400 asa.
However. mercury is highly toxic and the term "mad as a hatter" originated from the use of mercury for bleaching beaver pelts for hats! Hmm, most of the pelts came from Canada (The Hudson Bay Company) so Canada is partially founded on a fashion trend!
Today, I think I would avoid this process, though it would be interesting to see what "T-speed" or Delta 3200 would do after 24-48 hours in the jar with some mercury. hey that old barometer isn't doing a good job anyway.

 

[titrisol]

Delta 3200 in DDX goes up to 6400 fine
12800 is a strectch but doable

 

[Tim Gray]

I shoot Tri-X at 1250 with no real problem in Diafine. I've done it at 1600 for a couple rolls too (at a concert) and things were very usable.

I've also used TMZ at 1600, 3200, and 6400 (all in XTOL). The 6400 shots were not all that great, but the lighting in that club was awful. The 3200 shots were pretty good all things considered, but a fair amount of shadow detail was lost. Then again, with super strong lighting at a concert, it can be hard to keep the shadows without blowing out the highlights.

Metering is really important. For these kinds of shots at shows, I just spot meter off the face and at least I know that's going to show up. I just take whatever I can get in the shadows.

I also have to say that I don't mind the grain. I kind of like it actually. I have a fair amount of high iso shots between 1250-6400 on my flickr account if your interested. Check it out and search the tags for "EI 1250", "EI 1600", "EI 3200", and "EI 6400". If you're interested.

Last thing. Print small. Or shoot medium format.

 

[HSI]

HP5+ pushes pretty well to 1600ISO
I developed in Ilfosol, and it pushed pretty nice.
-

-
As for other films
- Neopan 1600 is amazing, super high-contrast (almost all black / white)
- Delta 3200 seemed kinda muggy and gray for a highspeed film

 

[Tim Gray]

I guess this is my chance to post a photo or two 🙂 Its not the most meaningful comparison since the light was different on the two nights, but here's some shots of the same band on two different nights. Both are on TMZ in Xtol, but the first is at 1600 and the second at 3200.

TMZ at 1600 in Xtol:


TMZ at 3200 in Xtol: