Best way to develop Adox CMS 20ii

Does CMS-20 II respond well to C41 developer? Will that tame the contrast?

tomtomgps said:

Unfortunately, my Adox Adotech IV had expired . After fixing, my CMS 20ii negative came out completely transparent.

Click to expand...

That's very unfortunate especially considering the fact that this was the last roll. Developers can go dead or become weak over time and it is prudent to do a clip test before using the developer.

You're right it actually taught me a lesson... I had put a lot of effort into those shots — tripod, long exposures, the whole deal. Luckily, I found an extra roll tucked away in my drawer.

tomtomgps said:

You're right it actually taught me a lesson... I had put a lot of effort into those shots — tripod, long exposures, the whole deal. Luckily, I found an extra roll tucked away in my drawer.

Click to expand...

I checked your blog. Micrat direct positive film seems to have worked well with POTA, nice detail throughout the scale. I've never used this film though I once ordered it from Astrum only to receive a different slow speed negative film. Since you mentioned in your blog post that "I noticed that the darkest parts of the positive image were remarkably transparent", does this mean that the slides are low contrast and have low DMax and might not be good for projection though great for scanning? Would you mind sharing a pic of the slides on a lightbox so that we get a good idea of the contrast and DMax?

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lightbox, but I’d say the images have low contrast likely because I used POTA. Most of the examples I found online were developed with standard developers and looked far too contrasty in comparison. The darkest areas of the positive appear more like transparent brown than true black. That said, the scan came out really well overall.

tomtomgps said:

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lightbox, but I’d say the images have low contrast likely because I used POTA. Most of the examples I found online were developed with standard developers and looked far too contrasty in comparison. The darkest areas of the positive appear more like transparent brown than true black. That said, the scan came out really well overall.

Click to expand...

No worries. Scans don't give a good idea of how good the slides are for projection but I think I got a decent Idea of the slides from your description.

If the highlights are clear, it should be possible to increase the density of the slides using an intensifier and redeveloping in a staining developer.