Anyone tried Fuji Artdol? Or will I be the first...

[Amund]

I`m a LF newbie, but not afraid to "experiment"
I developed my first LF negative yesterday in my 35mm tank, and got an evenly developed neg! (I have a couple of tubes on the way from JandC, but couldn`t wait)
I couldn`t find any info about Artdol anywhere, so I ordered a pack from Dirk to try out, and I will tomorrow...

I`m using a Graflex Crown Graphic with a 127mm Ektar and Fuji Acros 100 Quickload.

 

[fingel]

I'm curious how you managed to cram a 4x5 piece of film into a 35mm tank?

 

[Jim Moore]

I'm curious how you managed to cram a 4x5 piece of film into a 35mm tank?

I'm going to guess that he used the tank like you would a "tube".

Jim

 

[Amund]

I'm going to guess that he used the tank like you would a "tube".

Jim

Yes I did....
It`s a regular two-reel 35mm plastic tank. Two minute pre-soak, then filled it with 30ml Xtol 1:1, continious rolling in my kitchen sink for 9 minutes, stop , fix: voila, a prefectly even negative!

In Artdol the development time for Acros 100 is 4.5 minutes, must be a pretty active developer....

Will post results tomorrow, and with some luck, pictures too....

 

[Amund]

Being a bit hungover today, I never got much out, so I took two shots of my messy livingroom table

http://www.pbase.com/plexi/image/37666475

http://www.pbase.com/plexi/image/37666479

The Artdol does what promised, develop film....
That`s all we can learn from this

Will hopefully get out and shoot some nighttime images next week, Fujia Acros is the very best for long exposures, not much resiprocity failure to speak of....

 

[Dirk-san]

Hi Amund,

looks good to me... but then it is very hard to judge without seeing the negative I suppose. How did you agitate in the 35mm tank? In the long term it is better to have a reproduceable technique I think.

I have long struggled with how to best develop my 4x5 negs, but I think I have the solution now:

The how: http://www.unicircuits.com/archives/000321.html
The what: http://www.unicircuits.com/archives/000322.html

Regards

Dirk

 

[Amund]

Hi Dirk, I have now bought a couple of the developing tubes from JandC, and they deliver as promised. I used the 35mm tank the same way, continious rolling in tempered water. I`ll buy some more Artdol from you soon, I love the short development time.

 

[Eirik Berger]

blix: Have you tried Acros with Artdol? I have ordered Acros in both 4x5" and 8x10" from Megaperls webshop. I have done some Film speed testing using Xtol 1:3, but I havent desided yet which developer to use for this film.

I chose Acros (like you) because of its nice reciprocity capacaties, in LF long exposures are often used. But I dont know the film well enough to choose developer yet, some help would be appreciated.

Best Regards

Eirik Berger

 

[Amund]

Eirik, I bought the Ardol for use with Acros and too me it looks fine. I`m about to try it in different dilutions than the 1+2 Fuji recommends, but I like the short development times, and have had no problems with uneven development.
I haven`t done any sharpness comparisons, but it looks kind of like stock XTOL, very smooth and grainless.

 

[Bob Carnie]

I did buy some fibre paper off Dirk earlier this year and it was excellent (rembrant) but the duties and shipping absolutely killed any future sales , it cost me more to get it here than the paper itself, but a very nice paper for sure.
Have not tried any of his film

 

[Amund]

Bob, if you`re patient and choose the SAL(ultra economy), the shipping is very inexpensive, and if Dirk devalues the customs value a little, it`s sure worth the 2-3 weeks wait...

 

[Dirk-san]

Bob, I didn't know that, because I had never heard from you since. Naturally, I have no control over customs. Besides you chose to ship via UPS and in my experience any tracked shipping (also EMS) gets more attention from customs than standard mail.

 

[Dirk-san]

Eirik, I am using Xtol 1:2 for 10 minutes, film rated 50. This is with rotational processing. Very pleased with the results.