ID11/D76 or Perceptol for FP4

[larkis]

I'm planning on shooting some HP4 in 4x5 and was wondering which out of the two developers (which i already have) is better suited for this film if fine grain at 30x40 enlargements is important to me. Basically i want to see micro texture and have a nice tonal scale. I have used perceptol at 1:3 with mixed results, especially in high contract scenes. I have also tried efke 25 in D76 but while the tonal scale is great it seems to have big grain for a 25iso film (looks like my HP5 developed in perceptol).

Does anyone have any recommendations for working with FP4 and those two developers? I don't want to go much below 100iso because of subject matter.

I develop in a jobo by the way in case that makes any difference.

 

[rusty71]

I'm not sure about a JOBO, but I've been having great success with FP-4+ and D-76 using some old Kodak rubber tanks and hangers. I just used the times listed for sheet film on Digital Truth. Seems to be on target.
ID-11 and D-76 are close cousins, so you can probably use the times interchangeably, give or take 10% development time.

 

[Videbaek]

I've used FP4 in Perceptol 1:3 with very good results. Perceptol is very similar to ID11/D76 in my experience -- one gets a finer grain with Perceptol but tonality is very similar. I don't use a jobo.

 

[Mick Fagan]

I am using FP4+ 4x5 and using a Jobo for processing, I also use D76 1+1, which is a developer I have been using for years.

I think you shouldn't have too many problems getting a reasonably fine grained picture at that enlargement. I only enlarge to 12 x 16" paper but sometimes I crop from what would be a 20 x 24" enlargement or bigger. At that enlargement, grain is evident, but you really are looking, don't forget that grain is a fact of life with film.

Different lenses have different contrast and sometimes I find that I can shoot with my Fujinon W 210 f5.6 which is something like 20 years old without a filter, when I switch to the Schneider Angulon 90 f6.8, I really find an orange filter brings the contrast in line with the Fujinon, then both negs from each lens, enlarge almost identically, with near identical characteristics.

As for grain, well you may find a slight performance between different developers, but by and large it has been my experience over the years that a film has a certain grain size and different developers with different dilutions can and do make a difference, but it usually isn't that great.

I use D76 1+1 and have found that the film is more than usable with great possibilities between 80 - 100 ASA in normal daylight. You really will have to suck it and see, with some personal testing. Under Tungsten light, I find that 64 ASA and developing for a higher contrast, works well for me.

Rotary developing should give you consistency, sheet after sheet. I use old reels that I bought new for my 2800 drums about 19 years ago. The reels hold six sheets, but I have tested with six sheets and found there were quality control problems and apart from a test run with six sheets, I have only ever developed four sheets to a reel with near perfect developing results, this includes E6, C41 and B&W.

Mick.

 

[keithwms]

For quite a while I've been using ID-11 at 1+1, one-shot, to develop fp4+ and hp5+, and I couldn't be more pleased. Some time ago when I did some comparisons with perceptol and Acu (albeit on Rollei film, not the ilfords) I couldn't see any appreciable differences and decided to stick with ID-11. However, all of my ID-11 stuff has been tray developed 4x5 and larger, and the prints are all very conservatively enlarged or contact printed. So maybe for medium format or especially 35mm, one might see some apparent sharpness and grain differences between these developers. I see no difference in tonality at 4x5 and 5x7 though.

 

[fschifano]

We're talking about an 8x enlargement here, and FP4+ is fine enough to tolerate that. Perceptol is a lot like Microdol-X. Use it straight for a "fine grain" effect and lose some film speed; or dilute it 1+3, lose some of the fine grain effect, and get close to nominal speed. I'm in complete agreement with Mick regarding grain size and developers. I've been using D-76/ID-11 with FP4+ as a standard combination for a long time. I didn't find that Microdol-X delivered any advantage with this film.