Which developer for HP5+ ?

[Jordan W.]

HP5 Plus works well in a whole bunch of developers. (The only one I did not care for was actually Diafine -- which I like with almost every other film out there.) HC-110 Dilution H (1+63 from syrup) for 10' at 24C is very nice and was a staple combination for me for a long time.

I've also done HP5 Plus in an XTOL clone (MYTOL) as well as the Gainer-type developers (PC-Glycol, PC-TEA -- developers you mix yourself) and it works well in all of these too.

D-76 and ID-11 are clones, but I think it's going too far to say that Sprint is a D-76 clone. The Sprint film developer is a PQ-type developer, while D-76 and ID-11 are MQ-type.

 

[keeds]

Aculux2 anybody? It's what I use most of the time...

 

[GeneW]

The only developer for HP5+ I've ever disliked is Rodinal. I can pull very nice results with Rodinal and Tri-X and Neopan 400, but the grain goes to golf-ball size for some reason with HP5+. Nice tonality though...

Gene

 

[thodo]

First of all, please excuse my late answer; I've been too busy the last 2 days.

Thanks for the mass of suggestions. I will definitely give HC-110 a try, which seems to get a lot of votes here. 😉 At the moment - the more I read through this forums - I am not a 100 percent sure, if HP5 would be the best choice for the standard iso400-film. it seems as if there are more raves about Tri-X and Neopan 400. What do you think?

Thanks
Thorsten

 

[titrisol]

Thorsten,
HP5 is a great film! nothing wrong with it.
Tri-X has been a more talked about film, sorta standard due to the large Kodak marketing
Neopan 400 is very good as well.

I don;t think you can go wrong with any of these, buy 3 or 4 rolls of one, see if you like it and decide for yourself whether to stick to it or try something different.

 

[kaiyen]

Don't worry too much about TXT vs. HP5 vs Neopan 400. They are all excellent films, and you can get excellent results with any of them once you get your system dialed in.

HP5 is a great film. Don't be dissuaded. Get that process down, decide whether you like it or not, figure out why you do or don't, then look into what kinds of alternatives will give you the results you want.

allan

 

[FPjohn]

Confirm

Confirm

The only developer for HP5+ I've ever disliked is Rodinal. I can pull very nice results with Rodinal and Tri-X and Neopan 400, but the grain goes to golf-ball size for some reason with HP5+. Nice tonality though...

Gene

Hello:

This may confirm opinions of HP5+, pro or con, in Rodinol but I, as personal preference, can recommend Rodinol 1/50, 12-14min, 20C ISO 320. This image may suffer from my less than skilled scanning technique.

yours
Frank

 

[allthumbs]

First of all, please excuse my late answer; I've been too busy the last 2 days.

Thanks for the mass of suggestions. I will definitely give HC-110 a try, which seems to get a lot of votes here. 😉 At the moment - the more I read through this forums - I am not a 100 percent sure, if HP5 would be the best choice for the standard iso400-film. it seems as if there are more raves about Tri-X and Neopan 400. What do you think?

Thanks
Thorsten

No apology necessary, Thorsten. As you can see we've had a lively discussion while you were gone.

And I think you should trust your own eyes. I am no darkroom expert, but I've hung out around here long enough to learn that the best answer to 95% of film processing questions is: Try it and see! And please, tell us what you find out!