Adox CMS 20 advice?

[Roger Cole]

Roger, then you could also ask why people are using type 135 anyway... I mean, using it is not only a question of the price of larger format equipment.

And Kodak Technical Pan was not readily available over here as far as I remember. At least not easier than those high-resolution films of today.

Well it hasn't been available here for a long time either, as I think I said.

The reason to use 35mm nowadays, in my view, is for easy handheld shooting, quick operation with moving or rapidly changing subjects, and very fast lenses for low light. None of those lend themselves to big, grainless prints of stationary subjects, and even if you do get them to appear grainless, sharpness is going to be limited by motion, either camera or subject or both, more often than not.

In other words, if you are going to put the camera on a tripod and take photos of stationary objects and make large prints, use a larger camera. And if you aren't doing those things I don't think the film will help you much as the other factors will be the limiting ones.

Hi Roger, I make 40" x 40" enlargements and want to finest grain possible - my Zeiss lenses are clearly outresolving TMAX 100 so I'm looking for a higher resolution film with similar tonality (in 120 rollfilm)

Paul

Well ok, THAT I understand. I can't print larger than 16x20 and, though I wouldn't mind being able to do 20x24 don't think I'd do it that often if I could. My standard print size from medium and large format is 11x14 more often than not, and 8x10 from 35mm.

If you want to make very large prints like this you need something else. The film may help, but the sacrifices in tonality are not worth it IMHO though they may be to you. My suggestion would be large format but I realize it isn't for everyone. I enjoy working with 4x5 but it can be trying at the best of times and not by any means suited for all subjects. It would probably be great for the example you posted, though.

 

[Athiril]

Adotech/Adotech II is a high solvent developer with a lower hydroquinonehenidone ratio iirc.

Anyway, here is a CMS 20 dev recipe others may want to try:
http://translate.google.com.au/tran...a=X&ei=buU3Ub6SJYTTkgWF1oDYCw&ved=0CDMQ7gEwAA

 

[AgX]

In 35mm one can carry a greater variety of lenses compared to larger formats. The same time the lenses typically have larger aperture. Which yields more use for lower speed films (ISO 40).

I agree that to get the maximum out of a high-resolution film you need a fixed camera. Though that does not necessarily mean the use of a tripod.
Furthermore with a speed of ISO 40 handheld photography is often possible. In this case one might lose the highest resolution, but still yield finest grain.

 

[Paul Ozzello]

How do you know this?

With a tripod I shot the same scene with techpan and tmax by swapping film backs on my SWC/M. Very fine detail that is clearly visible on the techpan negative (and sharp) using a 15x loop is 'hidden' by the grain in tmax: cables hanging down from a blast furnace look like they're etched with a razor in the techpan and only faintly visible on tmax.

I'd rather avoid tech films because of their narrow exposure range and harsh contrast, but I also want to squeeze out every last detail that lens can capture

Got the RLS in the mail last night and will run some tests over the weekend.

 

[Paul Ozzello]

If you want to make very large prints like this you need something else. The film may help, but the sacrifices in tonality are not worth it IMHO though they may be to you. My suggestion would be large format but I realize it isn't for everyone. I enjoy working with 4x5 but it can be trying at the best of times and not by any means suited for all subjects. It would probably be great for the example you posted, though.

I've considered large format but I've been using my current gear for the last 20 years and it has become second nature. I also travel a lot by bike and need something relatively portable. And sheet film... no thanks With proper technique 40" prints can look really good, especially when drum scanned and printed on a high end inkjet.

@Michael - if you're in town over the weekend check out Mimmo Jodice's "Sublime Cities" at the McCord museum (this is the last weekend of the exhibit).

http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/expositions/expositionsXSL.php?lang=2&expoId=83&page=accueil

Paul

 

[pstake]

Wanted to share some success with Caffenol LC+C. Dead Link Removed

Contrast is controlled to a greater degree than with the LC. I souped it for 12 minutes rather than the recommended 15 minutes ... and probably could have done a little less. Exposed at box speed.

These were taken with a 1960 MIR (FSU) with a 1953 Jupiter-8 LTM, recent acquisitions for me. And this was a test roll for the camera/lens as well as the developer. Negative scans on V500 at 1600ppi.

 

[darkosaric]

CMS 20 example with old adotech developer (nikkor 50/1.8 wide open - if I remember correctly):


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