Efke and Acufine

[archer]

Has anyone used either FX4 or Acufine with Efke 50 and what did you think of the combination? At what speed did you rate the film and what developing times were used?
Denise Libby

 

[archer]

Since I asked this question about Acufine with Efke 50, it occurred to me that perhaps another alternative to increasing the speed of Efke 50 might be even more manageable in a two bath developer like Diafine which will give the speed increase I'm seeking with even more control of the resultant contrast inherent in a speed developer like Acufine. Do any of you have any thoughts regarding this combination and can you tell me what effect the speed increase will have on the grain structure of the film?
Denise Libby

 

[Rolleijoe]

To get the most out of Efke 50, rate it around EI 20-25, and process in Rodinal 1:50 for 10min @ 50º. It's a fine grain film, and would defeat the purpose of shooting it, if you increase speed & process in diafine. It's not made for that use.

 

[A49]

that perhaps another alternative to increasing the speed of Efke 50 might be even more manageable

Why do you want to increase the speed of Efke 50? I think Tmax 100 or Delta 100 are already at ISO 100 and would be sharper and at least as fine grained...

If you want to stick with the Efke 50, then Acufine, Microphen and Paterson FX-39 would go in the right, high speed direction. Check one of them and see how far you can go with the speed and If you like the other qualities. Xtol would also be a good choice as it should allow shooting at ISO 50 or a little higher and deliver very fine grained and good sharp negatives. The grain with Xtol surely will be finer than the grain from the other devs I mentioned.

A last thought: How big do you want to enlarge your 4x5 inch(?) negatives? If not much larger than 16x20 inch, then there would be no big difference between Efke 50 and 100. But if you want to make extreme large prints with no grain and super sharpness then I would vote for Tmax or Delta.

Regards,
Andreas

 

[archer]

I know that there are much easier ways to approach my goal but in this case I am committed to the use of two rather underpowered stobes of 300ws each and am committed to using Efke 50 for a rather large group as the Efke film has the look I'm after, if I can rate it at 100asa and deal with the resultant grain and contrast problems in the darkroom when I print. I think can control the highlights with Diafine and just hope that grain doesn't become unmanageable. I am not as concerned with ultimate sharpness as the 150 G Claron is a little too sharp to begin with. I'm trying to reproduce the tonality and grain in the last family group portrait of the Imperial Russian Royal Family and I'm very close but need just a little more depth of field with a slight reduction in sharpness without resorting to diffusion in printing. My clients are distant relatives of the family and have a beautiful 11X17 inch framed print of the late royal family and asked for a similar group of their family and they would like the prints to match as closely a possible. To this point, this has been a real voyage of discovery for me and a commission like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to test my ability to transcend the advantages and progress of modern materials and actually get paid to do it.
Denise Libby

 

[A49]

I wish you good luck and good light for your project. I´m very interested in your results with one of the speed increasing developers. Could you please post how far the speed increasing worked and how the grain and the sharpness came out after having developed your sheets?

Andreas

 

[2F/2F]

There is an easy commercial alternative for truly increasing the speed (i.e. not just the contrast) of Efke 50. It is called Efke 100. It is a lovely film, and it is more pliable than the two slower emulsions, because it is lower in contrast. It is also grainier. It will probably give you exactly what you want for your project. I'd probably use it in D-76, D-23, or X-Tol for a good all-around balance of technical considerations. You want something that will give you full emulsion speed, but that also won't cook the film, making the white shirts/dresses and/or skin tones hard to print. These are all good choices. X-Tol will be the least grainy of the three. I suggest making test prints before shooting this, so you know what will work best for the shot.