HP5 shot at 1/60, any suggestions on developers/times?

[mrwestphal]

Hey all, so I picked up an old Kodak Brownie 2A box camera recently and it uses 70mm film(116/616). ok, so I picked up some Portra 160, no problem, easy to shoot and develop that but I also picked up a big roll of HP5 which we all know is iso 400. Any thoughts on how the heck I might develop this stuff and with what developer should I use? Thanks as always!

Just a side note that I have checked the The Massive Dev. Chart and do have some ideas but I am looking for more practical knowledge from some of you that have done something similar. Thanks!

Thanks!
Doug W.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Doug,

1/60 and what aperture? I assume it's about f/14 or so (they usually are). And under what lighting?

Perceptol or a similar fine grain developer will give you a true ISO of around 250 which is 2/3 stop faster than Portra 160, and a stop or two of over-exposure won't matter a lot: you'll lose some sharpness (irrelevant with a box camera, where there's none to begin with) and gain a bit of grain.

Cheers,

Roger

 

[Gerald Koch]

I usually use a two bath developer like divided D-76 with film exposed in box cameras. Since these cameras offer little or no exposure control I find divided development helps to correct over and under exposures.

 

[don sigl]

I don't have much to go on as far as exposure. But I use PMK or Pyrocat for HP5. Development times are 13min and 8-9 min at 70F respectively. I shoot HP5 at 400.

You might want to do a clip test before you run the whole roll. Just clip a frames worth of film and run it at your best guess. Evaluate the results and run the rest of the roll on your adjusted guess.

Regards

 

[Muihlinn]

I'm with staining developers for HP5 too. About the same time/temp that Don but I usually rate it between 320 and 200.

 

[titrisol]

I assume that means you'll have a wide range of exposures?
No lightmeter so just point and shoot?

In that case some sort of compensating developer or a 2 bath developer may help you obtain images with some detail out of every frame.