Ilford Delta 3200 at ISO 12500

[Vonder]

I own one camera, a Canon A-1, which can meter up to ASA 12800. I got curious so I put a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 in and pushed it to 12500. Here are a trio of sample shots, for public viewing / review / general info. When I asked for samples prior to my own attempt I got none, so now here are three, for inquiring minds of the future.

and

and

These were developed in D-76 and the negatives scanned with a Nikon Coolscan 5000ED. As expected, grainy, but the fact that there was an image at all at this ridiculous speed is simply amazing. It won't be my last roll at this speed, that's for sure.

 

[kraker]

Thanks for trying and sharing your results. Maybe I'll also give it a try, someday...

 

[Vonder]

One more

I actually kinda like this one. Might have to see about printing it.

 

[dslater]

Hi,
What was your dev time for this ISO?

Dan

 

[Vonder]

17 minutes at 68 degrees.

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Interesting, I would have expected very blocked up highlights. It gives instead a kind of Mortensen-like look to the image. I'm not sure you would get a full black during printing without losing a lot of details, but for subjects not requiring large areas of black (like the dog), this is effective.

 

[johnnywalker]

Wow. Very impressive. The D76 was stock I presume? What was the agitation? I never thought one would get that range of tones (especially the 4th pic).

 

[Vonder]

Maybe so

Interesting, I would have expected very blocked up highlights. It gives instead a kind of Mortensen-like look to the image. I'm not sure you would get a full black during printing without losing a lot of details, but for subjects not requiring large areas of black (like the dog), this is effective.

I should also point out that these are raw, untinkered scans, in keeping with APUG's policy of minimal computer manipulation. I believe that using Photoshop and then digi-printing these you could get even "better" results if one would want to go that route.

 

[Vonder]

Agitation

Wow. Very impressive. The D76 was stock I presume? What was the agitation? I never thought one would get that range of tones (especially the 4th pic).

Yes, stock D-76. I agitated 10 seconds every minute. The negatives are NOT all this good. Some, where I really pushed the low light envelope, are much worse, so in all fairness I'll show a couple of those too...

and

There are others that fall in-between. Still, even the crappy ones are images and you can see what they are.

 

[Akki14]

Example of my medium format delta3200 photos shot at 6400 at a wedding (in the world's darkest venue ever, I'm sure of it...)

This is an 8x10 enlargement, cropped from a 6x6 frame. Anything oddlooking might be due to the fact it was taken on an Ilford Sporti - very similar to a holga with a slightly nicer glass lens.

 

[catem]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing. I think I might have a go at this...

 

[Vonder]

That's pretty nice

Example of my medium format delta3200 photos shot at 6400 at a wedding (in the world's darkest venue ever, I'm sure of it...)

This is an 8x10 enlargement, cropped from a 6x6 frame. Anything oddlooking might be due to the fact it was taken on an Ilford Sporti - very similar to a holga with a slightly nicer glass lens.

Yours looks much better than mine! I think this shows that a 1-stop push to 6400 is about the limit of the film as far as "usable" images, but who's to say what's usable eh? If I can capture my little girl waking up, early in the morning in a dimly lit bedroom, and there was no better way, I have a usable image. I'll "use" it 20 years from now when I miss my baby girl and she's off to college.

 

[eddie gunks]

Example of my medium format delta3200 photos shot at 6400 at a wedding (in the world's darkest venue ever, I'm sure of it...)

This is an 8x10 enlargement, cropped from a 6x6 frame. Anything oddlooking might be due to the fact it was taken on an Ilford Sporti - very similar to a holga with a slightly nicer glass lens.

can you give your developer and times? thanks

eddie

 

[Akki14]

Ilford Microphen 16min30sec(20C time)... that's the time for ISO 12500, though i think it was a bit warm so it wasn't quite that long, whatever 22C or so works out to be on the magical chart.

 

[pentaxuser]

I especially like the dog one. I did a horse's head once with D3200 at box speed. It was looking over a wall. I was pleasantly surprised at how grain free it appeared to be on a 5x8 print. However when I went on to print other negs there were all grainier than I'd have liked. It seems as if hairy animal subjects like dogs and horses suit fast film better than other subjects because they either conceal or suit grain.

pentaxuser

 

[Vonder]

The dog one frustrates me

I especially like the dog one. I did a horse's head once with D3200 at box speed. It was looking over a wall. I was pleasantly surprised at how grain free it appeared to be on a 5x8 print. However when I went on to print other negs there were all grainier than I'd have liked. It seems as if hairy animal subjects like dogs and horses suit fast film better than other subjects because they either conceal or suit grain.

pentaxuser

I like it too, but he was in a MUCH cuter pose just 3 seconds before this. When I crouch down with a camera he thinks I'm crouching to play, so he comes towards me. He's an affection addict, as most Golden Retreivers are.

I do agree that grain is a non-factor with fur, grass, and certain carpets, but it's no fun to specialize in carpet photography!

 

[htmlguru4242]

Wolfeye, those are very nice, especially at such a high speed!

I've done some of my own crazy experiments with Delta 3200, and I have to say that it'll yeild printable[ish] images up to EI 64,000 or so.

Its impressive that the highlights arent completely blown, and that the shadows aren't completely devoid of detail.

A suggestion; give Microphen a try. I did a bunch of experimentation with D-76, and the negs. came out similar to yours, though with less shadow detail. When I did them in Microphen, there was less grain and the images had slightly better tonality.

Keep experimenting!