Yet still Neopan 1600/HC110 disaster...

[alexz]

Developed my second roll of Neopan 1600, just 10 test exposures, bulk-loaded.
Developed in HC110, dill H, 20 deg.C, for 14 minutes, moderate agitation. Massive Dev. Chart suggests 7 minutes for dill. B, so I took twice as long for twice as dilluted solution (as I used to for Tri-X).
The results yelded yet extreme, non-tolerable contrast. I'm pretty sure in my exposures, all were shoot indoors under constant illumination and metered by hand-held incident meter. Have never failed on me yet, so I tend to believe this isn't case of severe underexposure.
What would processing experts say ? Does it seem as under/over development ? Or probably the real speed of that film is considerably slower then its factory-rated 1600 ?

Attached are few examples...

 

[alexz]

Some more frames from that film..

 

[nikon_sam]

alexz,

What was your reading from the lightmeter ???
What did you meter off of ???

 

[kossi008]

I think that's it. In a different forum, people rate the film at Iso 800/30° or even Iso 640/29°... while I cannot confirm this, I can already tell it's certainly below Iso 1600/33°. I have only shot one roll so far, devloped in Rodinal 1+24, and my shadows look very similar...

By the way, you seem to have a severe scratch problem on that roll...

Regards,
Georg

 

[Pherdinand]

don't know HC110, but i use neopan at 1600 to 2000 and develop in diafine and i get much better tones (although more visible grain)...
I had similar results when i driopped neopan1600 exposed at 1600 at a lab, where they developed in agfa refinal, and where they apparently "overdeveloped it" (expert's comment on the negative)

 

[alexz]

Thanks guys.
Well, I wouldn't doubt my meter (Polaris) - I gained quite a bit of experience with it, have never failed yet and produced adequate reading in that room I used to (I used to shoot there on Tri-X at 400 and remember these reading, the meter produced similar EV adjusted by two stops). The meter is incident, so metering on falling light.

Georg, I'm aware about scratch issue - most certainly caused by improper bulk-loading (forgot to open up the film slit inside the loading machine while rolling in the cassette). Perhaps I shall try a roll at 800-1200 ISO range...
But deosn't the results hint about inadequate development time ?

 

[santi-u]

I prefer to overexposed Neopan 1600 to 800 ISO, much better details in shdows and less contrasty and grainy. My scanner agrees it too.
I use HC-110 dil. B, 4,75 min.

 

[charjohncarter]

Santi-U, that is really a nice image taken with very (very) difficult lighting. I use HC-110h and find that highlights (if I expose correctly) are difficult to blow. I don't use Neopan 1600, but you certainly have it down. Alexz, from looking at Santi-U's photo I would say you have a starting point, expose 800, develop HC-110h 9.5 minutes, I guess normal agitation and 68 degrees.

 

[alexz]

Yes, Santi-U - your image sppears to be perfectly exposed/processed at difficult litghing indeed as John mentions. I'll likely to follow your recipe as a starting point, perhaps though will translate dev. times to dill. H. Once will hopefully nail it down at 800, wil raise up to 1600 trying to establish a reasonable approach.
Your 4.75 minutes for dill. B translates into 9.5 min for H, so that will be by starting point.
Thank you very much.

 

[cole]

This is interesting.

I also use HC110 dil. H on all my Neopan (Acros 100, 400, 1600), and I've never experienced shadow blocking like that. Perhaps something to do with your agitation? I use a double inversion every minute, and I generally give the dev tank a good knock every now and again, just to release any air bubbles.

I'll try and get some examples online.

To verify, I usually find Neopan 1600 requires a bit of overexposure (rated at 1000 or so), but even when shot at 1600, I haven't experienced blocking like that. 😕

 

[rich815]

I'm not sure you'd find many films looking good in that kind of indoor lighting. Low level "home' incandescent or similar just have poor tonality in B&W film I often find. And those do look a little under-exposed which is not helping.

I shoot Neopan 1600 usually at 1000 myself. And I develop most often in D-76. Here are a few examples of my typical results:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rich8155/385665822/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rich8155/385665871/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rich8155/385665979/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rich8155/130866629/

and for this one I used DiXactol Ultra developer:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rich8155/1203705096/

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