Developer Recommendations for Delta 3200

Never tried it before, and so I've loaded two cameras with it - a Pentax MX and an Olympus Pen F half frame.

Would like to know what developers the forum experts would recommend for 1) best pictorial use, and 2) on the half frame, to maximise grain as a replacement for Kodak Recording 2475. EI suggestions?

Thanks!

Maximise grain? Constantly agitate undiluted Rodinal!

I use Microphen mostly, and it's very good, although I've just started trying out TMax Dev to see how the grain differs (haven't scanned yet, hopefully this weekend).
I've used XTol in the past for pushing TMY, but I can't remember if I've used it on D3200 or not...

moltogordo said:

Never tried it before, and so I've loaded two cameras with it - a Pentax MX and an Olympus Pen F half frame.

Would like to know what developers the forum experts would recommend for 1) best pictorial use, and 2) on the half frame, to maximise grain as a replacement for Kodak Recording 2475. EI suggestions?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

If you have never tried Delta 3200 before, how do you know its grain needs maximizing?

Try microphen or d76 ilford provide times for both rate at 800-1000 meter like it was Hp5+ or Trix. It is not like Tmax3200.

RattyMouse said:

If you have never tried Delta 3200 before, how do you know its grain needs maximizing?

Click to expand...

Bad choice of words, I think . . . I've heard that it is very grainy, and I think what I want is to duplicate as close as possible the characteristics of long gone Recording 2475.

But I've also heard that it can be a fine pictorial film in low light if developed properly. So I guess that's closer to what I mean. ie maybe testing its' versatility. I have used TMAX 3200 but a very long time ago, and I've been told that the two films are quite different.

Thanks for all of your replies.

Pictorial - rate at 1600 and use DDX or Tmax dev
Grain - rate at 3200 and use Dektol 1:5 for 5 mins.
These are starting points for your testing.

Delta 3200 in Tmax developer - great combination:

Dead Link Removed

I made prints on 30x40 cm papers, looks great.

moltogordo said:

Never tried it before, and so I've loaded two cameras with it - a Pentax MX and an Olympus Pen F half frame.

Would like to know what developers the forum experts would recommend for 1) best pictorial use, and 2) on the half frame, to maximise grain as a replacement for Kodak Recording 2475. EI suggestions?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I have always loved this film in Rodinal developer, 1+25. Develop for a looooooooooooooong time to get adequate contrast, and then print big. A good friend of mine made 30x40inch prints from 35mm Delta 3200 negatives, and they look fantastic.
I've only gone to 16x20, but absolutely love the results.

Attached are two examples of 35mm Delta 3200, one low contrast evening shot, and one high contrast night shot. Both are scans of prints from Rodinal 1+25 negatives.

moltogordo said:

Never tried it before, and so I've loaded two cameras with it - a Pentax MX and an Olympus Pen F half frame.

Would like to know what developers the forum experts would recommend for 1) best pictorial use, and 2) on the half frame, to maximise grain as a replacement for Kodak Recording 2475. EI suggestions?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

ever used caffenol - C ?
i would suggest mixing a batch of caffenol c
( see my signature for the ez recipe
... the recipe doesn't need to be exact
eyeball measurements are ok in my book ,
and if you are heavy with your teaspoons that is fine too ..
ive had better results with too much
rather than too little ingredients )
THEN ..... add about 15cc of your favorite off the shelf print developer,
dektol, ansco130, selectol, sprint, soludol .. whatever is handy
and stand developer your film in it for about 30mins ...
do a plainwater bath first and when you pour the coffee in afterwards bang your cylinder
to get the bubbles off, as you normally wood, but after that, just leave the room and come back in around 30 mins.

before you do it with your 3200 film, try it with something else to make sure your ingredients are kopacetik
( some folks have trouble sourcing the washing soda and vit c and cheap coffee )

i have stand developed my film in this same recipe on and off for 2-3 years never an issue. nice pronounced grain
easy to print with an enlarger, ez to contact print and easy to s--kan.

good luck
- john

ps. if you have trouble sourcing the right ingredients
there are a few blogs dedicated to caffenol, there is the caffenol-cookbook.com too
and / or you can feel free to contact me and i will gladly give you a hand ...
(click link/recipe for additional details )

Thomas Bertilsson said:

Attached are two examples of 35mm Delta 3200, one low contrast evening shot, and one high contrast night shot. Both are scans of prints from Rodinal 1+25 negatives.

Click to expand...

Thomas,

That night shot looks like something from Brassai -- very evocative!

It has a much longer scale than Recording film, so you'd have to develop it for pretty high contrast, or deliberately underexpose and overdevelop it to get the same overall look. Grain will be different too, unless someone knows some secret I don't. Delta 3200 is a wonderful film in its own right, so you might want to just let it do its own thing. If you want blacked out shadows and expanded midtones, I'd try TMax400 rated at 800 and overdeveloped in TMRS. But then, alas, you'd still have fairly fine grain. I tend to use pyro developers for this film, and grain starts becoming distinct on a 16x20 print shot with 6x7 film, which can either be interesting or distracting depending on the specific subject matter. But there is a different "look" to the grain than say, Tri-X or HP5, or TMY, or certainly old school recording film.

Thank you all for your replies. I most certainly now have enough to go on - I'm going to try the T-Max first, because I happen to have some. I also have lots of Rodinal - I do have another roll of Delta 3200, so I'll try the 1:15 dilution as well.

I'm going to have to succumb to the cafenol bug, as well - a lot of my friends have expressed curiousity about it, so I will have to get around to that, too. I am a professional musician, and as I have a concert next weekend, I think I'll shoot the Delta about 1600 - I'll post the results as soon as I can develop the negs after the concert.

I find it interesting that I'm hearing more good things about this film than any of the other tabular grain products out there. The only one that I'm familiar with is TMax 100, which I find is good, but not good enough to give up on regular films.

Thanks for all of your help.

moltogordo said:

Thank you all for your replies. I most certainly now have enough to go on - I'm going to try the T-Max first, because I happen to have some. I also have lots of Rodinal - I do have another roll of Delta 3200, so I'll try the 1:15 dilution as well.

I'm going to have to succumb to the cafenol bug, as well - a lot of my friends have expressed curiousity about it, so I will have to get around to that, too. I am a professional musician, and as I have a concert next weekend, I think I'll shoot the Delta about 1600 - I'll post the results as soon as I can develop the negs after the concert.

I find it interesting that I'm hearing more good things about this film than any of the other tabular grain products out there. The only one that I'm familiar with is TMax 100, which I find is good, but not good enough to give up on regular films.

Thanks for all of your help.

Click to expand...

Have fun!

Regarding tabular grain products, I try to not pay so much attention to what technology was used to make any certain film. It's much more fun to put a film through its paces and focus solely on whether you like the resulting prints or not.
First time I tried the 'new' TMax 400 I was borderline shocked at just how good that emulsion is. It yielded such beautiful prints I could scarcely believe what I saw. To my eye it's slightly finer grain than Ilford FP4+, and higher resolution. But I also thought the prints have real presence. I like that it has a short abrupt toe, so I can easily choose what shadows I can bury in black and which I can leave clearly defined. Amazingly flexible with respect to exposure. More than any other film I've tried.

Anyway, have fun with Delta 3200. It's a very fine film.

moltogordo said:

I find it interesting that I'm hearing more good things about this film than any of the other tabular grain products out there. The only one that I'm familiar with is TMax 100, which I find is good, but not good enough to give up on regular films.

Click to expand...

[cynical]Possibly because it's all there is to go on.
It's easy to have an opinion about a 100-speed film, there's TMX, Delta 100, FP4, RPX100, Foma 100, Kentmere, Arista, and possibly more. If you don't like one small thing about one of them, it's easy to bash and compare to another.
At 3200, there's Delta 3200 and that's it. You either love it or don't use it.
Only other options are pushing a 400 2-stops (which I've done but really didn't like the results), or going digital (and I'll take Delta 3200 as looking 'cleaner' than my 7D any day. Maybe a $2k+ 5D/6D is better, but I don't have that cash).[/cynical]