The "definitive" HC-110 and Tri-X post

[allthumbs]

I'm curious where This Guy got 9 1/2 minutes in dilution B at 75F while Kodak says 2 1/2 at that temp and dilution. Am I the only person who notices the discrepancy?

This is making my head hurt. I think I'll just try it at Dilution B, 68F, and 5 minutes to start with and if it sucks, I'll try again...

Thank you for all your help...this is confusing to me for some reason.

Have a nice day,
Bob Clark

That sounds like a great starting point. The best thing is to do anyway is come up with your own numbers for your technicque, your water, your equipment, etc.

That page you mention is rather breathless and hard to follow, but he's not using dilution B. He's describing a specific technique using 1/63 dilution (half B-strength) with extremely minimal agitation (semi-stand), hoping to maximize shadow detail without blocking up the highlights. Keeping that in mind, 1/63 for 9 1/2 @75F seems not outlandish at all, especially if he's starting from Old TriX numbers.

 

[allthumbs]

If you're not sure and you want to save yourself time and film, do a clip test. You don't even need darkness. Mix up your developer at desired dilution and temp and put a small amount into a dish or cup or the like. Snip a piece of exposed leader and drop it in. Time. Rinse the clip in water, fix, rinse. This represents the max density for that film at that dil/time/temp.

Compare this to a known good negative. If you don't have a good example handy, in general they say it should be dark but you should be able to see bright lights through it. If it's not right, adjust one variable (like time) and try it again. If you're organized, you can test a range of times all at once.

This is not necessarily the time you'll end up with for a "real" negative, but it should give you a good starting point.

Good luck.

 

[Bobbo]

Okay, thanks all. I thought he said he used "B" right before the times he listed, but I guess it just wasn't written by an english major🙂.

Since my homework's done, my roommate's going home this weekend, and my significant other told me "it's not you, it's me" about 20 minutes ago, I'll have plenty of time to myself so I can do some shooting and run a bunch of tests between now and Monday morning...kinda strange how things work out🙂

I'll let everyone know how my tests come out.

Thanks again,
Bob Clark