Adox HR-50 First Time User

250swb · Jan 28, 2025

I think this is a very good review of developers to use with HR-50 and has DD-X among them.

http://www.alexluyckx.com/blog/2021/08/09/film-review-blog-no-74-adox-hr-50/

John Wiegerink · Jan 28, 2025

250swb said:
I think this is a very good review of developers to use with HR-50 and has DD-X among them.

http://www.alexluyckx.com/blog/2021/08/09/film-review-blog-no-74-adox-hr-50/

Yes, I read that review sometime back and it's one of the reasons I tried obtaining another bottle of FX-39II. That, and Henning Serger saying it was his, more or less, favorite developer for HR-50 also. Unfortunately FX-39II has been "out of stock" at Freestyle for a loooooong time now. Hopefully the new shipment makes it to our shores before I turn into dust.

Robert Ley · Jan 28, 2025

250swb said:
I think this is a very good review of developers to use with HR-50 and has DD-X among them.

http://www.alexluyckx.com/blog/2021/08/09/film-review-blog-no-74-adox-hr-50/

Thanks for this article, I'll save it for further reference.

blee1996 · Jan 28, 2025

John Wiegerink said:
Yes, I read that review sometime back and it's one of the reasons I tried obtaining another bottle of FX-39II. That, and Henning Serger saying it was his, more or less, favorite developer for HR-50 also. Unfortunately FX-39II has been "out of stock" at Freestyle for a loooooong time now. Hopefully the new shipment makes it to our shores before I turn into dust.

I can confirm that FX-39 II (1+9 dilution) works really well with HR-50 in 135 format, with very gentle agitation. Unfortunately FX-39 II is out of stock everywhere in the states, so I'm rationing my last bottle of 500ML. In the meantime I might try the TD-3 developer, which I bought for Kodak Tech Pan.

John Wiegerink · Jan 28, 2025

blee1996 said:
I can confirm that FX-39 II (1+9 dilution) works really well with HR-50 in 135 format, with very gentle agitation. Unfortunately FX-39 II is out of stock everywhere in the states, so I'm rationing my last bottle of 500ML. In the meantime I might try the TD-3 developer, which I bought for Kodak Tech Pan.

Be sure to let us know how TD-3 works out.

flavio81 · Jan 28, 2025

Henning Serger said:
Well, I have tested both. Results:
- HR-50 has significantly finer grain, higher resolution and better sharpness
- the characteristic curve of PanF+ is more linear, that of HR-50 more S-shaped
- the spectral sensitization is of course different (super-panchromatic vs. panchromatic).

Both films are excellent, and from both you can make very large prints from 35mm film with excellent quality. Especially with the modern, much improved high-performance lenses. These films with these lenses are a perfect combination.
But HR-50 has a very clear and visible advantage here: Enlargements from HR-50 35mm film often rival enlargements of classic emulsion films in medium format (4.5x6, 6x6).
You get a kind of 'medium-format-quality' with 35mm HR-50 / SCALA 50 concerning detail rendition.

And you get that quality at really very fair and attractive prices. ADOX has furtunately not followed KA's policy of very high price increases.
The price-performance ratio of HR-50 / SCALA 50 is really very outstanding.

Thanks for this info, I bought HR-50 because on tests Pan-F wasn't really better than Delta 100 (which on the other hand it's an outstanding film).

And I agree with the pricing, very reasonable in europe. I bought HR-50 and I also took the opportunity to buy Adox's Crafted for Henning Serger (CHS) II 100. The CHS costed just slightly more than the Fomapan. At those prices Adox ought to dominate Europe...

John Wiegerink · Jan 28, 2025

flavio81 said:
Thanks for this info, I bought HR-50 because on tests Pan-F wasn't really better than Delta 100 (which on the other hand it's an outstanding film).

And I agree with the pricing, very reasonable in europe. I bought HR-50 and I also took the opportunity to buy Adox's Crafted for Henning Serger (CHS) II 100. The CHS costed just slightly more than the Fomapan. At those prices Adox ought to dominate Europe...

Yes, other than the fact that some of the Adox products are hard to get on this side of the pond, I'm really impressed with their products that I have bought. I also greatly appreciate that they interact on this forum. Something that Ilford used to do when Simon was around. I miss that a lot.

thicktheo · Feb 10, 2025

Adox HR-50 is shaping up to be my favourite 35mm film. It loves sunlight and contrasty scenes, and it can be pushed one stop (more contrast, yay). It is not very forgiving when it comes to correct exposure, but when you nail the exposure, its style is remarkable.

I shoot it outdoors, I shoot it indoors. When paired with a strong directional light source, it always delivers.

On top of that, it doesn't really cost that much, and you can also develop it in b/w reversal chemicals (it's the same film as Adox Scala). Haven't tried the reversal process yet.

The 3:2 images were shot with the Leica M7, the wide images with the XPan. All were developed in a rotation tank and HC-110(1:63) for ~9mins.

Adox HR-50 First Time User

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