Pulling Delta 3200

[jamiewakeham]

Quick question: have just been shooting at a friend's wedding and been caught out by how dark the room was. Abandoned XP2 and shot three rolls of Delta 3200 instead. Exposed two rolls at EI800 and one at EI1600, having dimly remembered that the grain is improved with this emulsion when it's pulled.

Would people suggest:

a) developing the rolls exposed at 800 at 800 and the roll exposed at 1600 at 1600, or

b) developing the rolls exposed at 800 at 1600 and the roll exposed at 1600 at 3200 - ie overexposing by a stop throughout?

Various places on the interweb advocate both approaches...

Cheers
Jamie

 

[Ronald M]

It is really a 1200 or 100 speed film.

Process the rolls at two different times which you work out with new rolls shot at the speed you exposed the good ones. Someone elses times are not likely to work for you anyway.

 

[laptoprob]

I used the exposed speed only: 1600. Never tried overxposing because I trust my exposures. No problems other than my own in learning to develop.
Doesn't overexposure by development increase contrast a lot? You probably don't want that.

 

[Bryce]

If the pictures are as irreplaceable as they sound like, develop a test roll first and make sure you are happy with the results!
I've used that film a little here and there and developed it in Rodinal- maybe not the best developer for most purposes, but the results have been good for my purposes. That, however, only after a fair amount of trial-by-error.
In my experience, the negs have been very low in contrast unless I overdevelop. So this may be a problem for me because I print wet on a paper with relatively little contrast range, or maybe because of the developer I've used with the film, or ?
And that is why I highly recommend you develop similarly exposed test frames and adjust to your liking before committing irreplaceable images.
I do this quickly by buying a long roll of film (36 exp.), exposing maybe 3-5 frames and developing only the first little bit of the roll. Cutting a new leader with scissors lets me make another attempt without buying more film.
Hope this proves useful!

 

[Rob-F]

I agree, Delta 3200 is really a true 1000 or 1250 or so. So at 1600 you are not really pulling the film, you are pushing slightly--about 1/3 to 2/3 stop. If you develop in Ilford Microphen, you will realize a speed close to your 1600 setting, with no loss of shadow detail, because Microphen is a speed-increase developer. I think it is the ideal way to use Delta 3200. Don't use Rodinal--it's a "speed-losing" developer!

 

[jamiewakeham]

Thanks for the advice, all.

Yes; I realise that (despite its name) Delta 3200 has an ISO of somewhere around 1200. Should technically have entitled the thread 'pushing' Delta 3200 but then everyone would have thought of EI6400 and more!

The shots are reasonably important. I'll go on with the plan of developing a similar roll first as a test - good idea.

Cheers
Jamie

 

[titrisol]

Develop both as 1600
It'll work fine in both cases
Preferably use DDX or Xtol or Clayton F76+