Teus
Thijs Deschildre
It was very nice to move to Leica and the high quality glass it comes with. Moving to T-grain film was needed if I wanted to benefit from the increased resolution, but made contrast even harder to manage. I scan my photos with a Minolta scan dual III and would like to stick to it; moving to Vuescan gave better and much less contrasty results but my developing still needed adjustment.
At that time I was getting familiar with T-max and XTOL developers, but they weren't exactly great. XTOL proved to be too contrasty and diluting more didn't look so good. I've been through many other developers (HC-110, AM20/50/74, Rodinal, ID11) and knew they wouldn't give the results I wanted. I'm mostly using Ilford Delta 100 & 400 since I don't like the TMAX 100/400 look.
So I tried FX-39 and it appears to be a marvelous combination with high contrast glass, T-grain film and scanning. Already at the first development my negatives were both sharp and fine-grained, with a tonality I liked. Even in broad sunlight the highlights didn't blow, the shadows weren't blocked and the midtones seemed fair. At first I was fearing too much compression from this developer and the negatives looked a bit too contrasty but they did keep detail in the shadows.
Time for some samples, taken with 35/2 ZM Biogon T*. Photos have the classic look I think, and even the sky doesn't tend to blow out.
At that time I was getting familiar with T-max and XTOL developers, but they weren't exactly great. XTOL proved to be too contrasty and diluting more didn't look so good. I've been through many other developers (HC-110, AM20/50/74, Rodinal, ID11) and knew they wouldn't give the results I wanted. I'm mostly using Ilford Delta 100 & 400 since I don't like the TMAX 100/400 look.
So I tried FX-39 and it appears to be a marvelous combination with high contrast glass, T-grain film and scanning. Already at the first development my negatives were both sharp and fine-grained, with a tonality I liked. Even in broad sunlight the highlights didn't blow, the shadows weren't blocked and the midtones seemed fair. At first I was fearing too much compression from this developer and the negatives looked a bit too contrasty but they did keep detail in the shadows.
Time for some samples, taken with 35/2 ZM Biogon T*. Photos have the classic look I think, and even the sky doesn't tend to blow out.
Fotohuis
Well-known
Any thoughts about slower speed films with an ultrafine grain developer:
Efke 25 or Rollei Pan 25 in:
Microdol-X , CG512/RLS or W665 (Windisch).
Here an example of Rollei Pan 25 in W665 (Ortho Phenylene Diamine) 14:00 min at 20 degrees C. And a small detail from it.
M7 + Summicron 2,0/50mm.
Efke 25 or Rollei Pan 25 in:
Microdol-X , CG512/RLS or W665 (Windisch).
Here an example of Rollei Pan 25 in W665 (Ortho Phenylene Diamine) 14:00 min at 20 degrees C. And a small detail from it.
M7 + Summicron 2,0/50mm.