Great website showing film/developer results

Ron789 · Dec 25, 2016

I notice that many of us spend time testing and examining different combinations of films and developers.

I found a great Norwegian website that does exactly this, comparing 11 films and 10 developers. You can choose any film and any developer and compare it side-by-side with another film and developer.

http://www.fotoimport.no/filmtest/fktmax.html

I think this is great!

flavio81 · Dec 25, 2016

Thanks, it is great!!

another excellent test is on the "le pirate photo" french webpage:

http://pirate-photo.fr/pages/viewpage.php?f=51&t=41

they have more tests and comparison, really good.

ericdan · Dec 26, 2016

Don't see how this is useful at all.
They are comparing scans?
Get the "Film Developing Cookbook" you're much better off with that and your own results than relying on those websites.

mnemosyne · Dec 26, 2016

ericdan said:
Don't see how this is useful at all.
They are comparing scans?
Get the "Film Developing Cookbook" you're much better off with that and your own results than relying on those websites.

I disagree. It's not (only) about the scans. The best thing are the plotted curves for a lot of developer/film combinations, which is actually very useful information to determine the behavior of a film in a given developer (at least for someone who knows how to read them). This is not something you can easily do for yourself at home, it would require a considerable investment in time and material. Apart from that, the Norwegian site has been mentioned (and linked to) here several times in the past, so this is nothing new.

John Wiegerink · Dec 26, 2016

Yes, I found that site a couple of years back and sure did a lot of cross-comparisons of the film and developer combinations there. The one combination I'm going to try someday is Adox CMS 20 in Adotech II. It's not a cheap film or developer, but it sure does deliver the goods in the sharpness department. It would be fun to run a roll through my Contax G1 with the 45mm f2 T Planar.

ericdan · Dec 26, 2016

mnemosyne said:
I disagree. It's not (only) about the scans. The best thing are the plotted curves for a lot of developer/film combinations, which is actually very useful information to determine the behavior of a film in a given developer (at least for someone who knows how to read them). This is not something you can easily do for yourself at home, it would require a considerable investment in time and material. Apart from that, the Norwegian site has been mentioned (and linked to) here several times in the past, so this is nothing new.

That's what I meant… what's the point in comparing scans?

ericdan · Dec 26, 2016

Your water is different. You agitate differently. You're curves will be different.

AgX · Dec 26, 2016

mnemosyne said:
Apart from that, the Norwegian site has been mentioned (and linked to) here several times in the past, so this is nothing new.

Even I dit not know these comparisons. Some of us likely need repeated hints.

Chris Livsey · Dec 26, 2016

mnemosyne said:
Apart from that, the Norwegian site has been mentioned (and linked to) here several times in the past, so this is nothing new.

But finding those posts is not intuitive, these forums are way to short on stickies to direct posters to, the OP has 157 posts and two years membership I doubt he is alone in not having seen that site mentioned whatever the limitations.

flavio81 · Dec 26, 2016

ericdan said:
Your water is different. You agitate differently. You're curves will be different.

Your post is misleading.

With a standard developer such as D76, If you develop to the same contrast Index or gamma, the curves will be mostly similar to what other people get using the same developer. Unless you do weird things like stand development.

Water type will make no significant difference. And you should at least filter your water when preparing developers, anyway.

The comparisons posted are hugely useful to see the relative differences between films. Not just curves but also grain and sharpness.

Moreover, part of the "tonality" we APUGgers get obsessed about is not only due to the exposure-versus-density "curve" but in an equally large way caused by differences in spectral sensitivity (color response). Films differ a lot on this. For example FP4 , Acros, and Fomapan 100 differ a lot on this.

The norwegian website also allows comparing developers as well. The relative differences between developers will also be experienced by yourself even if using your agitation, water, t-shirt color and zodiac sign.

flavio81 · Dec 26, 2016

For example see differences in color response here:

http://pirate-photo.fr/pages/viewpage.php?f=51&t=65

More tests on the french website:
http://pirate-photo.fr/pages/viewlistepages.php?f=51

Doc W · Dec 26, 2016

Am I the only one here who can't read Norwegian?

AgX · Dec 26, 2016

seemingly...

You might crank that site through an automated translator.
Otherwise you might click those Union-Jack buttons, left above the texts describing the tests.

Sirius Glass · Dec 26, 2016

I found it confusing and difficult to understand even when I used the Union Jacks.

Doc W · Dec 26, 2016

AgX said:
seemingly...

You might crank that site through an automated translator.
Otherwise you might click those Union-Jack buttons, left above the texts describing the tests.

I guess this site is not designed for folks like me, which is just fine.

Sirius Glass · Dec 26, 2016

The site is not developed for people all over the world.

locutus · Dec 26, 2016

Norwegian is easy, just need a bit of alcohol first

ericdan · Dec 26, 2016

The website is misleading.
Wanna know the difference between two developers? Buy them both and try them out.

Sirius Glass · Dec 26, 2016

ericdan said:
The website is misleading.
Wanna know the difference between two developers? Buy them both and try them out.

Yes, it is not like we are talking about a lot of money.

bdial · Dec 26, 2016

ericdan said:
The website is misleading.
Wanna know the difference between two developers? Buy them both and try them out.

Sirius Glass said:
Yes, it is not like we are talking about a lot of money.

As useful as these comparisons could be for a starting point, I find it pretty difficult to look at these sorts of test shots and relate to my own work. Trying out developers using your own vision, cameras, familiar film, and your particular darkroom technique is much more effective, IMHO.
Great tonality, whatever that is, can be achieved with any developer. It has much more to do with what's in your head and how you interpret what you see than anything you can pour out of a bottle.

darkosaric · Dec 27, 2016

Nice site, it shows again how Adox CMS 20 in Adotech is absurd fine grained.

pentaxuser · Dec 27, 2016

Thanks Flavio for the two links. They were new to me and helped a lot

pentaxuser

pentaxuser · Dec 27, 2016

darkosaric said:
Nice site, it shows again how Adox CMS 20 in Adotech is absurd fine grained.

Yes, there is a great example of how different this combo is in terms of resolution compared to any of the others

pentaxuser

flavio81 · Dec 27, 2016

pentaxuser said:
Thanks Flavio for the two links. They were new to me and helped a lot

pentaxuser

You're welcome, but note that the norwegian link was not posted by me but by Ron, the OP.

BTW i'm a Pentax user myself: 4x Spotmatics and 28/3.5, 55/1.8,50/1.4, 200/4 s-m-c takumars. It's addictive.

Agulliver · Dec 27, 2016

Yes, I am sure my results will be slightly different, due to differences in technique. Yes, I am sure my tap water is different from theirs. No, I don't think that makes much difference. Yes, the stop and fixer may well be different....

But it is still a good indicator of how different films will do in different developers. I know what my preferred developer and processing routine does with HP5+. And it's pretty similar to what they're getting. So I have a fairly good indicator of what the roll of Delta 100 I got as a Christmas gift will do....or other films I haven't yet tried and might want to.

Useful site. And my browser automatically translates it. Win-Win.

Great website showing film/developer results

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency