Getting back to it, here's a couple images (from negative scans) I got back from my first go of XT-3 using the times I mentioned up above. This is Fomapan 200 in 4x5, a film I chose for my "one shot per week" challenge. Because of the Xtol issue, while I had planned to use the same developer for the challenge, I ended up just embracing change and tried several. The first few sheets were dev'd in Xtol-R, then I tried Microphen, ID-11, and now XT-3 for the latest ones. In comparing to the Xtol ones, the XT-3 ones aren't quite as dense, but I suspect I was probably over-developing the Xtol. I might add maybe 30 seconds to my times for the next go 'round though. I've also adjusted my metering a bit since Jan so not exactly apples to apples. I rate all my Fomapan 200 at 100 also.
Anyways, with that in mind, the results are quite lovely! Grain is very tame and in fact I'm curious to try XT-3 with T-Max P3200 as I've found it souped very well in Xtol. Tonal range is also beautiful good, though these are film scans and not darkroom prints and that will be the real test for me.
Overall I'm very impressed! I'm trying to avoid jumping into replenishment too soon but I really REALLY miss it. Everytime I think about doing an exposure test and making H&D curves I think about how much that will cost, not so much in price but time to wait on more XT-3. 150ml would be the min about of stick I'd feel comfortable using (300ml in 1:1) and that can go pretty quick if just developing a small 35mm test strip or 1 4x5 sheet.
That gets to me my real concern which is the time it's taking to get my hands on XT-3. I prefer to use FotoImpex but the DHL US Covid tax and the customs delays are making that less palatable. And in fact oddly the package I ordered a few days prior to ordering the XT-3 has yet to arrive which is making me concerned that it might be lost. That one contained the special edition Silvermax rolls. DHL says it's being sent to USPS but USPS shows no record of it, so that package is currently somewhere in the Ether. Hopefully once Freestyle has it I'll feel a bit better as right now every drop of this stuff feels precious.
I suspect that's a transient issue though, I'll continue to say it, I do not have good experiences with DHL Germany though I know at least one of the bottlenecks is US customs (and certainly my package containing XT-3 was stuck there for at least a week). I recall one package I ordered from a vendor in Germany that used DHL took *SIX MONTHS* to get to me (that was before the pandemic). It was so long we thought the package was lost. That's longer than it took to sail from Europe to America by wooden sailing ship!
One way to help solve that is to simply by a lot of XT-3 in one go of course. I currently have 2 bags remaining which hopefully will last me a while. Again, a nod to replenishment, even with aggressive replenishment rates, two can last quite a while.
