Delta 3200 vs. HP5 development in PMK pyro

[Henry Carter]

I have been shooting HP5 for many years (both 4x5 and 120) which my lab develops in PMK pyro with a JOBO. I love the results.

Development times at my lab for HP5 are 14 minutes if rated at 200, and 16 minutes if rated at 400.

I want to try 120 Delta 3200 in PMK pyro, and I am not sure what to rate it at, and what development times to use. Given that the nominal speed of Delta 3200 is around 800-1000, if I rate it at 800 do I develop it in PMK pyro for 14 or 16 minutes? Can I rate it at 1600 and develop for 16 minutes?

How do development times of Delta 3200 (rated at 800 or 1600) in PMK pyro compare to HP5 (rated at 200 or 400)?

Ed Buffaloe had good results with Delta 3200 developed in PMK pyro:

http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Times/D3200/D3200_Grain/d3200_grain.html

 

[Tom Stanworth]

I cant help completely but can a little. while I do not use PMK, but Xtol 1+1 or 2, I rate HP5 at 320 in my Mamiya 7II and Delta 3200 at 1200 in the same. FWIW D3200 is a low contrast film, unless grossly underexposed as it will be rated at 3200. I find myself developing it for substantially longer than Ilford recommends. Without having my notes with me I would suggest using a development time of about 40% longer than HP5+. Should get you somewhere in the ballpark.

Good luck. I find D3200 a truly beautiful film. It really suits old world subjects, with crisp tight grain (in 120) and a lovely palette of greys. I have not used much of it in 35mm, but in 120, with Xtol 1+1, 20x16s look lovely and the grain, if anything, is amongst the most attractive of any film and frankly I would love to see a print double this size as I suspect the grain would look beautiful.