About to Try Delta 100 For the First Time. Any Recommendations?

BradleyK · Sep 19, 2013

A long time user of PanF Plus and FP4 Plus, I am about to give Delta 100 a go. To that end, I am taking a brick of the film up to Banff National Park this next weekend to shoot the first snowfall of the season ( a couple of cm fell at the higher elevations...and this is only September!). Any suggestions on shooting/processing for a neophyte? My usual habit for my black and white work is to rate the film at one-half box speed unless I am "pushing" the film (a habit I picked up who knows where and when...and why, but it works for me ).

Thomas Bertilsson · Sep 19, 2013

Test it first. Never use new film on a trip. That's about the only recommendation I can give.

pstake · Sep 19, 2013

I love Delta 100 in rodinal stand. I use it at box speed.

mauro35 · Sep 19, 2013

I have used Pan F Plus as well for quite a while and it's one of my favourite black and white films. I have used Delta 100 too. My personal opinion is that Pan F is much better in terms of tones and subtlety of rendition for my taste. I wasn't very impressed by Delta in that sense, but nevertheless it' s an extremely sharp emulsion, not very tolerant to exposure mistakes (but Pan F isn't either) and I would recommend to use it at ISO 50 or 100 and develop as described in Ilford datasheet. I have myself mostly used Rodinal 1+50 for 14 min. at 20 degrees C and rated at 100 ISO. Hope it helps for you to start and then work from there to achieve what you like.

jp498 · Sep 19, 2013

I would only say what Thomas has said.

Shawn Dougherty · Sep 19, 2013

Thomas Bertilsson said:
Test it first. Never use new film on a trip. That's about the only recommendation I can give.

Exactly!

TheFlyingCamera · Sep 19, 2013

I would shoot it at box speed, but that's just me. Fourth what Thomas, Shawn, and JP have said. Test before you go so you're familiar with it. I like Rodinal and Pyrocat HD as developers in general, so I'd try either one that you're more comfortable with. Look up Delta 100 in the Massive Dev Chart and use their times/temps as a base for your test and go from there. You won't be un-happy with your results from Delta 100 unless you seriously screw the pooch on exposure or development - whether you'll love it or not is up to you.

DREW WILEY · Sep 19, 2013

Delta 100 has a relatively long toe to it, so gives good highlight and upper midtone separation, but poor shadow differentiation under high
contrast lighting - in which case, rating it at ASA 50 might indeed prove helpful.

andreios · Sep 19, 2013

I try to keep it simple, using it at box speed and developing in ID-11 1+1 or 1+3.

TareqPhoto · Sep 19, 2013

I did shoot with Delta 100 few rolls, but i wasn't happy with it much, not because i couldn't get good results out of it but because the results don't look much impressive or blown away, i much prefer TMAX 100 over it, and my best ever 100 ASA film is Acros no doubt, so that i don't hold much on Delta even i've got good enough results out of it.

As mentioned above, you should test it, try one of three developers, D-76 1+1, Rodinal and one of ilford developers, you may find one of them may give you better result over another one, i narrowed to those three because they are different types, one is stand, another is general standard, so the third should be developer for fast films such as Ilfosol 3.

ghart · Sep 19, 2013

For landscape work that embraces a wide spectrum of values, and for pictorial work in general, I greatly prefer Delta 400 over the 100 Ilford offering. The latter is good for leather and chrome reflections such as in biker shots

No seriously, Delta 400 handles the span of values extremely well. Acros has been mentioned and I have not tried that film, so can't compare.

Delta 400 is not available in sheet film.

I expose it at EI 200, develop it in ID-11 1+1, 8 min at 20 degC. Superb stuff.

I live in the same county as the Harman/Ilford factory but I have no connection with them, other than as a happy customer.

pentaxuser · Sep 19, 2013

Best to test but if you can't wait then shoot at box speed and develop as per maker's instructions. The negs will still be very printable.

pentaxuser

K-G · Sep 19, 2013

I'm very fond of Delta 100 myself even if it is a bit tricky to handle. Ilfords primary recommendation for Delta films is the DD-X developer . I use it for Delta 100 but I feel that the given time of 12 min at 20 deg C and 1 + 4 dilution gives a litle to high contrast. Once you get hold of the best exposure/developing combination, it will reward you with excelent negatives ( Technically, that is . The rest is up to you ). You can find quite a lot of information in the enclosed thread that has been up for dicussion recently. Good luck and don't give up.

Karl-Gustaf

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

K-G · Sep 19, 2013

If you have nothing else to do, you can also read through this second enclosed thread.

Karl-Gustaf

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

ToddB · Sep 19, 2013

I use Delta 100 as my go to film. Love the detail and the dynamic range. Process with D-76 for 12 min.

ToddB

About to Try Delta 100 For the First Time. Any Recommendations?

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