Ilford Delta 3200 - first time, some questions

[keenmaster486]

So I ran a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 through my Pentax P30T over the last couple weeks.

This is my first time shooting Delta 3200, so this was basically an experiment for me. Using the P30T seemed like the right choice since it's the most capable and convenient camera I have, albeit with only an f/3.5 lens which I want to upgrade eventually but it works great for now.

After shooting the roll I got worried it hadn't metered correctly, since the manual states it only works up to 1600 ISO - but it was definitely giving me exposure readings that seemed right, and in broad daylight gave me f/5.6 at 1/1000, which if I am not mistaken is five stops from f/16 at 1/100 for ISO 100 film, as it should be. Plus all of the images turned out properly exposed, and I developed it for 12 minutes in D-76 which according to the dev chart is for box speed, if I'm correct. Maybe there is an undocumented feature of the DX coding in this camera which allows for very high ISO films?

Out of curiosity, I wonder if the DX coding on Kodak P3200 is the same as for Ilford Delta 3200.

Half of the roll was a portrait shoot with a friend which turned out some very pleasing results, a good thing to know since I was shooting in broad daylight. I may be trying to print some of these frames soon; does anyone have suggestions for how this particular film behaves when printing on multigrade paper?

Thanks!

 

[pentaxuser]

It sounds like the film speed dial on the camera only allows the meter to assume that the film is a 1600 but in fact depending to a small extent on the developer, the true max speed of D3200 is 1000 but if it assumed that the speed was 1600 then depending on the strength of the broad daylight should the exposure not have been at least 1/1600th at say f11 and thus twice that i.e. 1/3000th at f5.6?

Saying how the daylight corresponded to sunny f16 may help reconcile this

pentaxuser

 

[aleckurgan]

but it was definitely giving me exposure readings that seemed right, and in broad daylight gave me f/5.6 at 1/1000, which if I am not mistaken is five stops from f/16 at 1/100 for ISO 100 film, as it should be. Plus all of the images turned out properly exposed, and I developed it for 12 minutes in D-76 which according to the dev chart is for box speed, if I'm correct. Maybe there is an undocumented feature of the DX coding in this camera which allows for very high ISO films?

It seems like your camera overexposed it by about 3,5 stops (sunny f16 rule gives shutter speed of 1/EI at f16, in your case 1/1500 f16). I don't know if you deluted your developer or not, but Ilford's datasheet for Delta3200 gives 9,5mins for EI1600 (or 10,5mins for EI3200) in D-76 stock at 20C.