TriX at 200

[kemal_mumcu]

Hi all, summer has come here in my part of the world and that means a lot of sun. I was wanting to take normal TriX 400 and pull it to 200. Would this just mean less development time?

I recently noticed since doing my own B&W development that in general all my B&W M2 work was generally underdeveloped/underexposed. I took a metered Olympus that I use for slides and which has a great meter and I noticed that the negatives were again generally underdeveloped. So i started overdeveloping by 15 - 20% and I found the results much more to my liking. Is this common? I have noticed that other RFFs have mentioned overcooking their film for better results.

Does this mean that I can take my TriX - shoot it at 200 and develop it as per the recommendations on Kodak's website?

Any help would be appreciated. 🙂

 

[notraces]

You should check out this website for great developing information:

http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php

You're right - it will be less time - or you can just use the recommended times on Kodak's site and then work from there to find time and dilutions you like.

 

[Melvin]

I've been thinking about this too. I had my 15mm Heliar the other day and my meter told me f8 at 1/500. But the Heliar is best at 5.6. So I shot at 5.6 1/500, i.e. at iso 200. I developed the film normally d-76 1:1 68 9.75 minutes and the negatives are fine, no loss of light detail.

Also, I read recently that if you want to pull the film, Kodak recommends taking one minute off the time. This is from a website. (I sure miss Kodaks 1-800 help number, you could call and an expert would answer all these kinds of questions).

The other thing would be getting into developers like Rodinal, Perceptol, using stand development, etc. I still haven't tried these yet.

 

[Nando]

I normally shoot Tri-X at 200. I use D-76 diluted 1:1. I invert the tank continuously (but gently) for the first 30 seconds, then gently invert the tank 5 times every minute. Development time is usually around 9 1/2 minutes @ 20C. I add or subtract 30 seconds depending on the temperature.

 

[newspaperguy]

About 25 years ago, I was shooting PR stuff for the military in the high desert portion (Yakima Firing Range) of Washington State (hot-bright-hot.) We rated Tri-X at 200 and souped it in HC 110. Worked just fine. Great negs.

Still use that combo.

 

[JJW]

Pulling Tri-X

Pulling Tri-X

Rule of thumb for the old Tri-X was pulling 1 stop cut the development time by 20% and for two stops 30% with all else equal (agitation, temperature etc.)

Tri-X split 76 at 200 was great for outdoor shooting in bright weather as it gave some tonality to the sky and good shadow detail. At 400 the skies were always blown out and blocked up.

I also used Tri-X at 100 for very high contrast situations like shooting with on camera or direct flash.

So for sunny days 1/500th between f/8 and f/11 worked fine. I tried to keep the sun at my back so the lighting was on axis.

But there is no substitute for testing and refining your own technique.