Best developer for Ilford 100 or Tri X?

[abudhabiandy]

Hi,

I've just started to take portraits (mainly daylight with a Nikon F100 & 85mm lens) & locally (UAE) can source both Delta 100 & Tri X film.

Any thoughts on what developer with give me the sharpest negs - by that I mean smallest grain.

Thanks & hi from the desert

Andy

 

[PeteZ8]

That's kind of a misnomer. Developers that give "sharper" looking negs generally achieve that by having more dominant grain.

 

[Ian Grant]

Sharper negs doesn't mean more dominant grain at all. Try Perceptol diluted 1+3 very sharp with reduced grain.

Ian

 

[Venchka]

Delta 100 is to fine grain as Tri-X is to lovely visible grain.

I think it would be wrong to force Tri-X to be something it's not. That said, Xtol 1:3 will minimize the grain of Tri-X and virtually eliminate any grain in Delta 100.

Different films for different things. It's all good.

 

[darkosaric]

Hi,

I have tried ilford delta 100 in perceptol and grain is almost invisible. But still I like it more in rodinal, grain is little bigger (I see this when using grain focuser while developing prints), but it looks sharper.

Here are examples in perceptol and rodinal (cheap canonscan scanner, paper scan):

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Also you will find examples of trix in rodinal (no need to say which is my favorite developer ), and some other combination. I usually put film/developer info below picture.

Regards,

 

[Phillip P. Dimor]

For 35mm portraits i've been a fan of Kodak Microdol-X at 1:1. It's been a looong time since i've used it but when I did, it was during my portrait phase.

My philosophy now is basically use whatever you have, know, or can find..
Look for good light!

 

[Jim Chinn]

A dozen folks will provide a dozen different answers. For Delta 100 I like XTOL 1-3. Very fine grain and great sharpness up to 11x14 enlargements. When I shot Tri X I used D-76 1-1. I recently bought a bunch of the Arista Premium 400 (re-packaged Tri X) and will develop that in Xtol and compare it to older Kodak negs done in D-76.