Tri-X @ 800

[Honus]

I just finished a roll of Tri-X rated at 800. The developers that I have available to me are Rodinal, XTOL and Diafine. The Diafine I use when I expose at 1250-1600. I have been getting very pleasant results with Tri-X @ 250 and XTOL 1:1.

Any recommendations for Tri-X @ 800 using XTOL or Rodinal would be appreciated. High dilutions, stand development, special agitation techniques, etc. are willingly accepted. Posting photos to support your recommendations earns you extra credit 😀

- robert

 

[Doug]

You could run it in Diafine anyway; 2/3 of a stop isn't that big a deal, and it's super-compensating... 🙂

 

[wlewisiii]

800? I'd dunk it in the diafine. As Doug notes, that's not enough off the usual rate to matter as much as some other factors.

William

 

[Honus]

That's 2 for Diafine. Interesting. I'd love to see an example.

 

[Doug]

Maybe more like 3 for Diafine (or at least 2.5) 😉 since you mentioned using Diafine with Tri-X. That loads it with the advantages of being familiar and on hand. Doing a Search on the gallery (all fields) for "diafine" yields 151 hits.

Overexposing 2/3 stop will have a minimal effect because of Diafine's compensating action; that is, your highlights are limited in density, and you might notice a little better densities in the shadows and perhaps a little lower overall contrast.

 

[Dave H]

I get better results using Tri-x at 1000 anyway, so 800 is well within my general metering accuracy range hence I wouldn't even blink at using Diafine. Sometimes I think it looks a bit better with a touch overexposure as the results aren't so flat.

 

[Dave H]

Daniel,

Wow, surely those shots were taken using more than one candle !

Dave

 

[T_om]

There was more than one light sources in all of those. Look at the hair lights, indicating a overhead source and also the reflections in the glasses.

I don't believe he meant "only" candle light.

Anyway, back to the question. Tri-X at 800 works well in Diafine. I know a number of people that use this ISO with Tri-X all the time. Especially those in a wet darkroom. It will extend the tonal range a bit and lift the contrast a bit at the expense of loosing a tad of highlight information.

Tom

 

[derevaun]

I think Diafine will do just fine, but it's also a good candidate for Rodinal 1:100 with reduced agitation. I use around 10" initial agitation, then a couple inversions at 10' intervals, 40-45 minutes total, as a low contrast baseline for box speed. More agitation gets you more highlight contrast, like pushing but shadows will be better. for Tri-X at 800 I'd start with something like 30" and 4 inversions per interval, as a guess. I find it's like Diafine in that it's hard to totally screw up a negative this way. It differs from Diafine in that it's probably a little sharper; it's different from Rodinal with standard development in that grain is probably less clumped.