Choice of 400 film to push to 1600/3200

[jsimoespedro]

Hi all,

tomorrow I will need to shoot at 1600 or 3200. I will use 120 film and develop in Rodinal.

I can use either Tmax 400, Delta 400 or HP5+.

Which one is best for the purpose?

Thank you.

Joao

 

[markbarendt]

They all do as well as can be expected with an underexposure of that magnitude.

They would probably do better with a faster developer like DD-X or Tmax.

The biggest problem I see for you though, and I know because you are asking, is that you haven't tried so you don't know your limits; you don't know where you will reach a point where there will be a failure.

So, pick one right now (does not matter which), go to a dark place in your house (maybe a garage) where there is a similar lighting level to what you will deal with tomorrow, Take a model if its people you'll be shooting, meter like you will tomorrow, shoot a full test roll starting at maybe 4 stops under (6400) and working up to 5 over (12), develop and have that roll hanging to dry inside 60 minutes, 120 minutes from now try printing from the frames shot at 3200 and 1600. 3-hours from now you'll know where the limit is.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Rodinal is not the best choice for pushing. I would suggest Acufine or Diafine and then any other Phenidone or Dimezone developer such as Xtol or HC-110. It is also better to use a faster film such as Ilford Delta 3200 or Kodak Tmax P3200.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

Previous comments all good but what are you shooting and what result do you want? Tri-X in diafine at 1600 would be good but has a look that is distinctive. Mostly I would not use Rodinal to push but then again if you want evident grain and more contrast it might be exact the look you're after...

That being said I favor HP5 at 800 in Rodinal but certainly not at 1600 or 3200.

 

[Rhodes]

Tri-x at 1600 and T-Max developer, my combo for pushing film!

 

[ntenny]

I've seen people get some very good pushed results from Rodinal with long stand or semi-stand development, even though it's a speed-losing developer in general.

It's also very different from most other developers, which means other people's experiences may not translate well. Personally, I don't like the t-grain films much, but have had good luck getting HP5+ up to 3200; that was with PC-TEA (which works very much like Xtol) and a witches' brew concocted by one of the other posters here, though, and neither bears any resemblance to Rodinal.

Mark Barendt's advice above is right on the mark, I think. Whatever you're using, test it first!

-NT

 

[jsimoespedro]

Thank you all for your comments.