Goofy Film developing: Kodak LPD-4; Agfa Copex and Fuji HRII Minicopy

[CuS]

I have been bitten by the goofy film bug. I've become a bit bored with my typical 35mm films (like regular films aren't complicated enough in their own way ) and I wanted to get some ideas on how to go about developing these three films:

1. Kodak LPD-4 (a line film -positive- in 35mm - ISO 8?);
2. Agfa Copex (a microfilm - negative in 35mm - ISO 80?); and
3. FUJI HRII Minicopy (a microfilm - negative - 35mm - ISO 6)

I have the following developers:

• HC-110
• Rodinal (I've done rodinal 1+200 stand for 120 min for HRII)
• D-76
• Diafine (I've seen that you can go A (1:50) + B @ 3+3 for the Copex)
• Dektol (I've been told that you can use a 1:9 dilution of this for the LDP-4 and develop by inspection under red safelight)

I also know that there are probably better developers to use for these as well.

I plan to shoot these in my Bessa R3M (meter is dead accurate and I can shoot slow shutter hand-held).

Your take?

 

[Michael W]

I tried the Fuji Minicopy & my results are completely different to others I've seen posted on flickr, etc. Most people seem to stand develop for 2 hours at 1:200; when I did that the film came out bullet proof. That was at EI 6.
I did a few clip tests and ended up developing in Rodinal 1:300 for 30 minutes, gentle agitation for the first 15 seconds and then for 5 seconds every 5 minutes at 20 deg c. At EI 6 this has plenty of shadow detail but at zone VI and above the curve completely flattens out. Any attempt to increase development just lifts the entire curve up but it always flattens out at zone VI.

My resulting photos are very sharp with plenty of shadow detail and mid to light grey highlights, but no whites. Like I said, totally different to all the other results I've seen.

 

[bdilgard]

I have had some luck using Caffenol LC with VariCath, which I believe is really Copex, at EI 50 and Caffenol LC+C with HRII. I shot assuming EI 25 but I was using an old Kodak Bantam so accurate settings are pretty unlikely. Also played with some different ratios of FX-1 and semi-stand. http://www.flickr.com/photos/playbassfishing/sets/72157607653747863/

 

[ic-racer]

This thread may be of some interest. I was using an un-marked film, probably similar to Copex.
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[Kirk Keyes]

LPD-4 is cool. It's designed for litho developers, so I would try to make/find something like that. If you can't, then try HC-110 dil. A or more concentrated perhaps. Fun stuff!

 

[Mike Wilde]

Yes, I shoot kodalith 6556 t3 at EI 2-8 in my 35mm gear, and process it in d-19 for high contrast, d-85 for lith results, and a wierd 1g/l of developing agent formula for continuous tone results from this orthochromatic emulsion.

 

[CuS]

I really appreciate all of your suggestions - I'll be sure to post some results soon.

Cheers!