Adox HR-50 bulk arrived......which developer?

relistan said:

I still think you over exposed the negatives you did in 2B-1. It's giving a speed boost and needs less exposure. Your highlights will be hard if you over expose it (and develop normally). You can see in this thread above how well my two baths (2B-1 and 2B-4) did with HR-50. Since you already cut your dev time to as low as makes sense, less exposure is the next step.

Of course if it's not the tool for you it's not the tool. But it might be for others.

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My evaluation of the negatives suggests that there was only just enough shadow information to be truly usable, so I don't think overexposure was the issue. But I haven't used 2B-1 with a film like HR-50, which I will probably do soon.

For my needs, no matter how much exposure the film got, highlights shouldn't be getting too hot in a divided developer.

retina_restoration said:

My evaluation of the negatives suggests that there was only just enough shadow information to be truly usable, so I don't think overexposure was the issue.

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If the developer is doing its job, (IME it does) with the proper exposure and development, you're not going to lose shadow detail at the expense of blown highlights. This developer will retain the shadow detail, that is where a divided developer shines. If you are experiencing blown highlights, my assessment is still that you didn't dial it in yet. But you have no obligation to do that. I'm only defending my work in the face of statements that your result is how it is.

retina_restoration said:

But I haven't used 2B-1 with a film like HR-50, which I will probably do soon.

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Fair enough, please give it a try. If you don't care about the speed reachibg box speed, and you're happy with BTTB for that film, it may not be worth the effort for you.

retina_restoration said:

For my needs, no matter how much exposure the film got, highlights shouldn't be getting too hot in a divided developer.

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See above comnents. IME you did not dial in the exposure and times yet. But again, if you like what you have, no need to.

Note no blown highlights here, good shadow detail:


and with HR-50, not as much scene contrast:

relistan said:

If the developer is doing its job, (IME it does) with the proper exposure and development, you're not going to lose shadow detail at the expense of blown highlights. This developer will retain the shadow detail, that is where a divided developer shines.

See above comnents. IME you did not dial in the exposure and times yet. But again, if you like what you have, no need to.

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My tests involved bracketing upon to 1&1/2 stops plus and minus, and the minus frames lacked any shadow information, but the high values were hotter than I prefer. (I didn't say the highlights were "blown", I just said they were too hot for my liking)

As I said, 2B-1 will work well for many people, depending on what they want to achieve. But it's too active a developer for my needs.

retina_restoration said:

My tests involved bracketing upon to 1&1/2 stops plus and minus, and the minus frames lacked any shadow information, but the high values were hotter than I prefer. (I didn't say the highlights were "blown", I just said they were too hot for my liking)

As I said, 2B-1 will work well for many people, depending on what they want to achieve. But it's too active a developer for my needs.

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I'm heading back up to my cottage where most of my chemicals are tomorrow morning and will mix a batch of 2B-1 up to test it against BTTB. I find HR-50 in BTTB a very good combination, but I would never turn down a little increase in film speed as long as it doesn't take a toll on image quality. We'll see, I guess.

John Wiegerink said:

I'm heading back up to my cottage where most of my chemicals are tomorrow morning and will mix a batch of 2B-1 up to test it against BTTB. I find HR-50 in BTTB a very good combination, but I would never turn down a little increase in film speed as long as it doesn't take a toll on image quality. We'll see, I guess.

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Give it a shot John. I liked my results with it, as posted. For me, achieving box speed and retaining as much shadow detail as possible were key positives.

relistan said:

Give it a shot John. I liked my results with it, as posted. For me, achieving box speed and retaining as much shadow detail as possible were key positives.

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I'll do just that Karl. When I talk about speed increase, I'm not asking for anymore than an ISO of 50 with HR-50. I just don't want to be shooting an ISO 50 rated film and having to down-rated to EI25 or lower to get results that are acceptable to me. I should also add that what I accept and what you do might be two different things. I'm so far willing to accept what I get with HR-50 and BTTB for now. When I get back up north I'm going to ring this film out with Pyrocat-HDC (semi-stand, 2-bath and highly dilute), PC-512 2-bath and 2B-1. I just received my replacement motherboard for my Nikon Coolscan LS-8000, which will really help in testing these combinations out. The weather here is terrible right now, so no picture taking until the storm breaks.