What Bombed ? Developer or Fixer ?

[srtiwari]

It is correct to rate it at EI 1250 with Diafine. Rating it at EI 400 is less than acceptable to me, although Diafine is remarkably tolerant of such flim-flammery.

Since we are discussing Tri-x, shouldn't it be Film-flammery ?

 

[bmattock]

Since we are discussing Tri-x, shouldn't it be Film-flammery ?

Well said!

 

[sunsworth]

Since so many people on RFF have experience with Tri-x, wonder what is their developer of choice for it ?

My personal choice is Xtol diluted 1:3.

 

[naruto]

Since so many people on RFF have experience with Tri-x, wonder what is their developer of choice for it ? I'd love to see some smooth, creamy, grainless, reasonably sharp negatives with my Tri-x 400.

I have had very good results with HC100 dilB at 400 and 1600.

With Rodinal, I rate it at 250 and develop in 1+100 for 20mins. 2 inversions every 2 mins (very slow)

with Xtol I follow the digitaltruth timings.

my current fav combination is Xtol+Rodinal [Xtol 1:4, Rodinal 1+100] for 12.5mins at 20degC. same slow agitation as with rodinal. the negatives have the acutance of rodinal and the grain pattern seems much better.

but, by far, the smoothest grain I have seen with triX is d76 and perceptol. for perceptol rate the film at 250 or 200.

you cannot go wrong with TriX in any developer. universal film.

 

[Chris101]

If grainless B&W film is your goal, skip the silver stuff and check out chromogenic films such as BW400CN or XP-2 that you have developed in the same C-41 process as color film. That is about as close to grainless as film gets, but the negatives are orange.

ps, everybody gets a clear roll at least once, or if you are like me, on a yearly basis!

 

[titrisol]

Since you use 35mm film and are not developing all the time, make a test before hand:
- Drop the leader of the 35mm film into the develper solution with the lights on and see if it turns black... Also note the time it takes to becmoe dark gray (almost black), 5x that time should be your development time. If developer is dead you'll know it and will not kill your film

- IMHO ROdinal 1+50 works fine with TriX and is even better if you rate it as 320 or 250

 

[drewbarb]

Frame numbers and film info are indeed exposed onto the edges of the film at the factory, so if your film came out completely blank without even that information visible it would seem that you must have skipped the developer and poured in fixer first. Had you poured in developer first, you would have seen SOMEthing on the film. I'd double check your chemistry, and be sure you have everything right.

 

[gb hill]

I developed a clear roll just the other week. Picked up & developed an unexposed roll.
Hopefully I want do that again. Now I have a box I throw my exposed rolls in. Anyway when you clip the leader off your roll use that to test your fixer & you will quickly know if it's good, plus you can get your times from that x by 2. Always set your chemicals in the same order each time you develop. From left to right I go dev., sb, fix, wash. I never make a mistake that way. Some people don't like the results, but thats whats so nice about HC-110. You can mix up what you need to do a roll of film & the stuff last almost forever. One shot & it's gone. Try some Perceptol, just for fun. It's a fine grain developer & you might like it.

 

[MartinP]

BW400CN or XP-2 that you have developed in the same C-41 process as color film. That is about as close to grainless as film gets, but the negatives are orange.

XP-2 is not on an orange base - this means that you can either scan it, or print it in the usual (wet-darkroom) way without having problems from the orange base.