Is anyone successfully using this combination? And if so, what are your development times/agitation technique?
I'm on my 3rd roll of this stuff and just can't figure out how to get useful density out of it in the Pyrocat. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, and I do realize it's not a true 3200 speed film, but I was hoping to find a good option for handheld indoor shooting... yes, my girlfriend has requested even more pictures of her cats.
There was not any guidance in MDC so I made some comparisons with other developers and took a wild guess.
First roll I shot at 1600 and developed for 20min, with initial 1min constant agitation and then 4 inversions every 3 min (same as I do for normal dev with FP4). Completely unusable, barely any trace of an image.
Next 2 rolls I shot at 1200 and developed 24min, with initial 1min constant and then 4 inversions every 2 min (same as I do for a +1 push of HP5). These did create a discernable image, but with a DMax in the 0.5-0.6 range, which combined with the very high Fb+F (at least compared to the Ilford films I'm used to) gave me a maximum DR of ~0.3-0.4, barely suitable for a grade 5 print and only on a few shots, at that.
In all cases, temp was a constant 20C and dilution was 1:1:100, with a 5min pre-soak, water stop, and TF-4 fix.
Am I doing something very wrong, or is this maybe just not a good combination? I could try exposing at 800, but that means I'm getting no benefit over HP5 which I already know I can push with great results. And looking at MDC I just don't see any non-stand-dev times longer than ~20 minutes for any film with Pyrocat-HD, though I guess it's worth leaving it in for a REALLY long time and seeing what happens?
Or would something like Rodinal or D-23 (my other two dev options currently) be a better fit for D3200?
I'm on my 3rd roll of this stuff and just can't figure out how to get useful density out of it in the Pyrocat. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, and I do realize it's not a true 3200 speed film, but I was hoping to find a good option for handheld indoor shooting... yes, my girlfriend has requested even more pictures of her cats.
There was not any guidance in MDC so I made some comparisons with other developers and took a wild guess.
First roll I shot at 1600 and developed for 20min, with initial 1min constant agitation and then 4 inversions every 3 min (same as I do for normal dev with FP4). Completely unusable, barely any trace of an image.
Next 2 rolls I shot at 1200 and developed 24min, with initial 1min constant and then 4 inversions every 2 min (same as I do for a +1 push of HP5). These did create a discernable image, but with a DMax in the 0.5-0.6 range, which combined with the very high Fb+F (at least compared to the Ilford films I'm used to) gave me a maximum DR of ~0.3-0.4, barely suitable for a grade 5 print and only on a few shots, at that.
In all cases, temp was a constant 20C and dilution was 1:1:100, with a 5min pre-soak, water stop, and TF-4 fix.
Am I doing something very wrong, or is this maybe just not a good combination? I could try exposing at 800, but that means I'm getting no benefit over HP5 which I already know I can push with great results. And looking at MDC I just don't see any non-stand-dev times longer than ~20 minutes for any film with Pyrocat-HD, though I guess it's worth leaving it in for a REALLY long time and seeing what happens?
Or would something like Rodinal or D-23 (my other two dev options currently) be a better fit for D3200?