Good Developer for Acros and Neopan

brian steinberger

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I'm starting my venture into Fuji's B&W films. I've begun to shoot both Acros 100 and Neopan 400 in 120 upon many recomendations. Looking for some suggestions on a developer. I shoot landscapes and rustic architecture. I have ID-11, Xtol, Rodinal, and Pyrocat HD available to me. With suggestions, please provide times, and dilution and temperature. Thanks!

Brian
 

Ryuji

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Among your options, I suggest the following:

For Acros, XTOL 1+2 at 25C at the Kodak recommended time.

For Neopan 400, XTOL 1+1 at 20C at the Kodak time.

If you are willing to use other developers, Acros could use a bit more accutance-oriented developer. XTOL is a pretty good developer for Neopan 400.

If you are willing to mix from scratch, DS-10 developer 1+1 is best for Neopan 400 at 20C. DS-12 at 2+1 is best for Acros 100.
 

vet173

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Pyrocat HD/P 1:1:100 10 min @20c normal agitation is a good starting point for Acros.
 

mono

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For me Acros works fine in Rodinal 1+50 10min, gentle agitation every minute at 20 C, EI 80. I presoak for 2 min.
 

Dietmar Wolf

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You see, you can, as always, choose what you want.

What do you prefer? Powder, Liquid, development time, sharpness, corn.
Then take whatever you have ;-)

I took ID11 1+1 standard time, 20C. No problem.
Recently I tried XTOL. It is too smooth, lacks of sharpness, in my eyes. Although it is really a very good fine grain developer.
 

Black Dog

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PCAT semi stand 1+200 for 60 mins
PMK for 12 mins (400)
Barry Thornton's 2B
Try a search on here and have a look at digitaltruth.com-I'd probably use PCAT out of what you have (also try minimal agitation 1+100 for 18-20 mins with 10 secs agitation every 3rd minute).
 

RIchardn

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For Acros I Like Rodinal at 1+100 for 18 mins as listed on the massive development chart
 

P C Headland

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Like the poster above, Acros in Rodinal 1+100 for 18 minutes (as per MDC), shot at box speed.

For Neopan 400 & Rodinal, I find it best if I shoot it at 250 and develop in 1+100 for 20 minutes.

As far as other choices of developer, Acros is really nice in PC-TEA 1+50 for 9 minutes shot at box speed. Neopan 400 works really well for me in Diafine when shot at 650.
 

mcgrattan

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I use Adox ADX with Neopan 400 and Neopan Acros. Great results. I mostly use this developer because it's economical and seems to keep well.

However, I've generally good results with most things with the Neopan films. Ilford DD-X, Moersch EFG (which was a Perceptol clone), and Adox ATM49 (used to be Calbe A49) have all been good.
 

Thomas Bertilsson

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I recently tested Neopan 400 with Pyrocat. I think I didn't dilute the developer enough for my stand development test.

I used 1+1+100 for 60 minutes, first minute agitation, stand for 59. 70*F. Very sharp, a little dense, so 1.5+1+100 for normal exposure of EI200 should work really well. Normal to high contrast scenes.

I hope that helps. The negs printed very nicely, I got good results from the first paper and needed minimal tweaking. Best quality - sharpness and contrast. Almost no grain at 11x14" print size from 6x4.5 neg.

- Thomas
 

Ryuji

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Thomas Bertilsson said:
I hope that helps. The negs printed very nicely, I got good results from the first paper and needed minimal tweaking. Best quality - sharpness and contrast. Almost no grain at 11x14" print size from 6x4.5 neg.
Click to expand...

In my hand I can make grainless, high accutance 24 inch prints from cropped 6x6 format (same as 6x45 image size) using a conventional development, 8 min by hand inversion. Actually, using the same developer, I could get almost grainless 24 inch prints from 35mm negs. All acros. I love this film.
 

Thomas Bertilsson

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Good for you, Ryuji!
However, should you compare Neopan 100 Acros to Neopan 400 when it comes to grain? I don't think so. The difference is huge. Acros has extremely fine grain and Neopan 400 - well, it doesn't.

The cool thing about stand development is that you can go grocery shopping while the film is developing. Very efficient in that respect...

But I'm a fan of Acros too, but then again, I don't care about grain. But that's a different story for a different place. I just love the super creamy tones it's capable of.

- Thomas

 

Ryuji

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Thomas Bertilsson said:
Good for you, Ryuji!
However, should you compare Neopan 100 Acros to Neopan 400 when it comes to grain? I don't think so. The difference is huge. Acros has extremely fine grain and Neopan 400 - well, it doesn't.
Click to expand...
Oops, I just noticed you were talking about Neopan 400 not Acros. I agree with you...

From Neopan 400 in 6x6, I can still get almost grainless (grain not perceived at regular viewing distance) 24 inch prints tho.
That is, I can blow up 35mm Neopan 400 to 11x14 without getting perceived at regular viewing distance. Actually, I just went to see prints on my wall in bright room light... I had to put my face right in front of the print (about 6 inches) to see the grain.

For Neopan 400, I use a developer that is slightly modified from published formula, DS-10.

For Acros, I have a unpublished developer that I have... but you could use DS-12 as well.

But I'm a fan of Acros too, but then again, I don't care about grain. But that's a different story for a different place. I just love the super creamy tones it's capable of.
Click to expand...

Acros has many strengths, and one thing I like is the great reciprocity law, making it ideal for night photography. Another thing is that it has better visual sharpness and more pleasing tonality than T-MAX 100.
 

Ryuji

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brian steinberger said:
Ryuji,

Are you using Pyrocat HD as well? If so, what dilution?

Brian
Click to expand...

Brian, sorry, I was in hurry and forgot to add. I use my Dimezone-ascorbate developer for my film processing. As a general rule, I use DS-10 1+1 for film of 400 speed and faster, as well as Plus-X. I use another unpublished developer for Acros, TMX, APX25 (I still have some...). DS-12 is also a very good developer for slow films although it uses Metol.
 

JohnArs

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As alway I take the best developer wich is on the whole planet still XTOL for all my films!
The only soup wich works for all very excellent, Armin
 

Ryuji

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DS-10 works well with all 400-speed films. It has some problems with slow films, but I keep this developer because it works so nicely with 400-speed films. (I can make bigger prints from the same film, and the gradation is very nice.)
 

Zathras

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Ryuji,

Can you point me to a page where your developer formulas are posted? I'm very interested in giving your DS-10 and DS-12 a try.

Thank you,

Mike Sullivan
 
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