2 Questions please: Delta 100 and Refinal

People have made mention of using Refinal dilluted 3:1. Does it have to be dilluted? On the packet they give dev. times and I assume that is for "straight" Refinal.

Second question: Is Delta 100 the finest grain, highest resolution B&W on the market today?

Thank you!
-Rich

RichA said:

People have made mention of using Refinal dilluted 3:1.
Is Delta 100 the finest grain, highest resolution B&W on
the market today? Thank you! Rich

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Very seldom mentioned, Refinal, and only the 3:1
dilution. I think 1:3 is meant. Greater dilutions with
lengthier development should do well. Experiment.

There are slower films which should produce finer
grain all things being equal. Dan

Dear RichA,

I have a few pages of original and practical info coming directly from AGFA Leverkusen, send to me by Dr. Buttner, dating from 1993. I is in German bur interesting! The tables are clear and easy to be read by non German speakers.
As the pdf's are about 4 Mb a page, the printing (photocopy) was not that good to reduce the resolution of the scanning, I will have to send it directly to you, if I have your e-mail address.

Philippe

Refinal is a wonderful developer, akin to Microphen, but the development times in undiluted
solution run from 4 to 6 minutes - which is too short for most folks to be comfortable.

Delta 100, TMax 100, and Fuji Acros are unsurpassed for general photography. Some films offer 'finer grain' or 'higher resolution' but they are for special purposes and are not suitable for portraits, landscapes, and the like. As for determining the real performance of a film, it depends completely upon the user and the veracity of the test.

Much obliged for all the info!

I tried it out and it seems to work very well, thanks! But I still miss using Tech Pan and Technidol!

RichA said:

I tried it out and it seems to work very well, thanks! But I still miss using Tech Pan and Technidol!

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I still have Tech Pan (35mm and 70mm bulk plus 4x5 sheet and 120 rollfilm) in my freezer.

I don't use Tech Pan for my landscape work. For my landscape work I prefer TMax, Acros, Efke and Delta. All of these films developed in Pyrocat.

You can either ask mr. Hoskinson for the film in his freezer, or buy Adopan 20 (20 iso), or, if you feel like experimenting, rollei ortho (25 iso).

You will also need a tripod, sunshine or studio lighting, f/1.0 lenses and so forth.

As far as *nal developers go, my opinion is that if the formula is not published, and the company goes belly-up, or dicontinues a product (very easy these days with films and film products) then I have to spend 1 year learning another developer.