I finally had a chance to do a little developer testing with HR-50 and found a couple that show some promise. The first developer I tried was my trusty favorite Pyrocat-HDC diluted. The negatives showed promise, but I'm going to have to play a little more with this combo. The next was Rodinal 1+100 full stand. The negatives weren't bad, but not what I was after. I then tried Rodinal 1+25 for 10 min. @ 68f semi-stand. Now we're getting somewhere. Since most of my chemicals are at my other residence, I wasn't able to try Karl's two bath, so I decided to go with BTTB 5+5. I must say it almost feels like cheating using this simple 2-bath, but if it works, who cares. Yes, it worked rather well I think, but I still have to fine-tune it a little.
First, I have to say that my antique Microtek M1 flatbed scanner isn't the greatest and that this isn't a hi-tech test. I metered the scene with a spot on the front windows of the old school house, and it was used for all shots. The camera was an old Agfa Super Memar with an excellent 50mm f2 six element coated lens. All scanner setting were set the same for all frames, with black point and white point settings set according to the histogram. No sharpening or any post-processing done.
Here are some of the results that I thought were worth further pursuing:
The Rodinal shots were just a couple of quick snaps. On close inspection of 100% crops I actually think Thornton's 2-bath looks slightly sharper than the Rodinal ones do. I'm going to try a base setting of EI32 with BTTB and go 4 min in bath A and 4.5 min in B bath. I think I'll rate the shots to be developed in Rodinal at EI32 also, but cut the developement time back to about 8 min. I also noticed what looked like very slight bromide drag on the semi stand Rodinal ones. It showed on the top of the window frames on the front windows. If Karl's 2B-1 gives me a slight speed increase it would be welcome since BTTB didn't seem to be very good in the speed department. It wasn't bad, but not the greatest. I actually think Rodinal had better shadow detail and any given speed compared to BTTB. Just my finding and I have to play a little more with this film, but so far I like it and the fact it has near IR ability as well.