Developer for Efke PL100 4x5 sheet film

jaimeb82 · Oct 13, 2009

I don't have a lot of experience developing my own film, just tried this summer with 35mm. I used Ilford Delta100 + XTOL + Ilford rapid fixer. Results were good and I used XTOL as (stock) 5Liters use and get rid of it.

I am playing with (4x5) Efke sheets and was wondering if I can use XTOL or if another developer will be best. On the instructions for use of the Efke film they recommend:

efke FR 16(1+19)
Micorphen
Rodinal(1+12)
D-76
T-max(1+4)

I ideally would like to use a developer that once I used I can put down the drain. It is less confusing for a beginner and I can control the results better.

Thanks in advance.

werra · Oct 13, 2009

If PL100 is the same emulsion as KB100, then Rodinal 1+25 gives beautiful result.

jaimeb82 · Oct 13, 2009

It is the same, KB100 is 35mm and PL100 is sheet film. But they recommend (1+12) Is that 12 parts of water for 1 part of Rodinal?

werra · Oct 13, 2009

1+12 is kindof strong soup for Rodinal. What time they do indicate? I used 1+25 for 6 minutes, found from MDC and it worked very well.

jaimeb82 · Oct 13, 2009

(1+12) 7 minutes

werra · Oct 13, 2009

This combination sounds really weird to me.

Rick A · Oct 13, 2009

jaimeb82 said:
I don't have a lot of experience developing my own film, just tried this summer with 35mm. I used Ilford Delta100 + XTOL + Ilford rapid fixer. Results were good and I used XTOL as (stock) 5Liters use and get rid of it.

I am playing with (4x5) Efke sheets and was wondering if I can use XTOL or if another developer will be best. On the instructions for use of the Efke film they recommend:

efke FR 16(1+19)
Micorphen
Rodinal(1+12)
D-76
T-max(1+4)

I ideally would like to use a developer that once I used I can put down the drain. It is less confusing for a beginner and I can control the results better.

Thanks in advance.

D-76 stock 7mins @ 20c
D-76 1+1 10mins @20c
I'm a 45 plus years user of D-76 no reason to use anything else (okay, I'm baiting some responses here!)

Rick

MikeSeb · Oct 13, 2009

I'm with Rick, as a fellow Rodinal apostate.

Hard to beat D-76 or Xtol for just about anything. TMAX is a bit pricey but lasts forever and is convenient to use. It looks to me a lot like D-76.

juan · Oct 13, 2009

Pyrocat PC
juan

P C Headland · Oct 14, 2009

I use either Rodinal 1+100 for about 18 minutes or PC-TEA 1+50 for about 10 minutes. Both are one shot developers, but PC-TEA is a home brew.

With Rodinal, I prefer 1+100 dilution @ 20C, and cutting down the agitation (5 inversions each minute for the first three minutes, then one inversion every three minutes). This seems to help the shadows, and keeps the highlights from blocking up.

mhanc · Oct 14, 2009

I use Xtol undiluted with Adox CHS 100, which is the same film as the Efke. Very happy with the results of this film/dev combination.

djkloss · Oct 14, 2009

are you using tank or tray development? I use Rodinal 1:99 stand develop for 1 hour and it works great for me. You're going to find a lot of different responses here. Your best bet is to be patient and try them all. And keep a notebook. The only time I used Rodinal 1:10 was after reading Les McLean's book on the Creative Image when pushing film to the extremes ISOs. And it works great on those.

Have fun.

Bosaiya · Oct 14, 2009

Pick something and stick with it. Try out the various combinations of dilution, time, and temperature. Remove as many variables as possible. Get to a point where you can replicate and anticipate. From there make small adjustments to only one thing at a time so you know what to expect. There is no one right way to do things.

That said, you can't go wrong with Rodinal. 1:25, 1:50, or 1:100 it's all beautiful.

2F/2F · Oct 14, 2009

X-Tol will work just fine with any black and white film. So will D-76, HC-110, Rodinal, or any other black and white developer. It is not a question of which developer as much as it is how much work you put in to learning what to do with it.

Martin Aislabie · Oct 14, 2009

2F/2F said:
X-Tol will work just fine with any black and white film. So will D-76, HC-110, Rodinal, or any other black and white developer. It is not a question of which developer as much as it is how much work you put in to learning what to do with it.

Very succinct

Martin

jaimeb82 · Jul 28, 2010

I finally went with xtol in a jobo constant agitation beseler rotary base machine for 5:45s @ 23degrees, (it is hot here in NYC) water for stop bath and kodak rapid fixer with hardener for 5minutes. change the side of the jobo tank every 30 seconds so developer touches all over the negatives sheets. Thanks for all the responses. At the end, trial and error helped a lot.

Shawn Dougherty · Jul 28, 2010

I had nice results with Rodinal 1:100 and Efke PL100. Gave up on it due to inconsistencies in the emulsion. Some boxes were great, some were not...

holmburgers · Jan 4, 2012

Reopening an old thread.

I've developed a number of Efke PL100M 8x10" sheets in HC-110 (B) for 6 minutes in a tray, 1 at a time (scared about damaging the emulsion) and rocking the tray for 10 seconds every 30 seconds.

In every case, I'm getting what seem to me to be rather thin negatives. The film is old stock, expired in '09, but I've been shooting it at EI 50 and still this is the case. Only in the specular highlights and a direct reflection of my photo-flood in a window am I getting really nice density in the neg. The scale looks decent, but I suspect when I go to print it I'll need a rather high-contrast VC filter.

Just curious if anyone has some comments. Expose more, develop more, see if I can make a fine print as it is? I might be asking this question prematurely, but people's thoughts are always helpful.

thanks!

ntenny · Jan 4, 2012

Hmm---I've used a similar regime, but at EI 100 and with less agitation, quite a bit with good results. It seems weird too that this film, a couple of years expired and (I assume) in decent storage, would lose all that much sensitivity. At the risk of asking a dumb question, but given that you're in Kansas and it's January, is there any possibility that things are colder than you expected?

I guess I'd try more development first, in your position. Have you shot the film before (in whatever format) and gotten results you liked?

-NT

holmburgers · Jan 4, 2012

Thanks Nathan,

Cold is something I had considered, but the 1st sheet I developed (and the one I'm referring to) was used in a fresh developer solution that started out at 21° and probably creeped down around 20° by the time I slipped the sheet in. For this sheet I think we can rule out cold dev., though honestly, some other sheets later that night might've suffered from this.

Truthfully no, I haven't gotten anything great out of this film yet. They just seem so... thin! There's detail & nice scale, but I'm just amazed at the lack of density, especially compared to my Tri-X 320 sheets.

The film was gifted to me by an APUGGER, so I can't completely vouch for its storage, though I trust that this person didn't do anything crazy, but maybe not refrigerated.

I agree, I will extend development times and see what happens. I don't know if I can afford any more speed loss. Also, I'll keep a close eye on temperatures next time, just to be certain.

Eric Rose · Jan 4, 2012

I use PL100 exclusively for 4x5. Probably shot 100's of sheets of the stuff. The best developer I have found is PyroCat-HD using semi stand technique. For average scenes I too rate it at 50asa.

nworth · Jan 5, 2012

I've used both D-76 (mostly) and Rodinai; with this film. Both work well. I think I like Rodinal a bit better, but I don't really like the film that much. I had a fair stock, so I used it.

holmburgers · Jan 5, 2012

The film is appealing because it's so cheap, and especially so if it's gifted... ...but I'm gonna use it almost exclusively for making separation negatives and so it's good for testing that, especially at a minimum of 3 negatives a go.

I plan to even cut some up into 4x5" sheets to make testing a little more economical. I'd like to experiment with other developers, but I'm trying to standardize on HC-110.

I'll try to get some densitometer readings and more info as I sort this out.

Thanks guys

snederhiser · Jan 6, 2012

Hello;
Not much has been posted about the exposure of the film. I would shoot at recommended rating and use a skylight or light yellow filter with exposure correction. How accurate is the shutter that you are using? This is an old school emulsion and would think that extra time in the developing tank would be in order. 10 min in full strength D-76 would be my starting point and adjust from there. The only film I used that was thin was Agfapan 100, but still gave a good printable negative. Steven.

ntenny · Jan 6, 2012

I went back and looked at some of my old negatives developed using this regime, and I think it may be true that they're short on density in the highlights specifically. The *average* density looks good, but I don't really see any bulletproof Zone MCMLXXXVI highlights. They were taken in fairly soft lighting, though, so I'm not absolutely sure that this is a trait of the film vs. something specific to these images.

-NT

Developer for Efke PL100 4x5 sheet film

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