Ilford Delta in HC110

Shootar401 · Jun 1, 2013

Has anybody ever developed Delta 100 in HC110?

I ran a few rolls of it through my RZ and forgot I didn't have any DD-X left. It's always been my developer for the Delta films, but I figured I'd give it a shot in HC-110 since I have loads of it laying around.

I developed in dilution H and since no times were published for that dilution I guessed at 9 minutes and went for it. All I can say is WOW! Delta 100 & HC100 gives some great SHARP negatives. I'd say easily on par with T-grain developers. Definitely going to be my new combo from now on.

I'm going to shoot a few sheets of Delta in 5x7 and try it in a tray to see if I can replicate the results.

rwreich · Jun 1, 2013

I looked for published times and only found dilution B & E. All the different variations really turn me off from experimenting. I like knowing why something works when I use it.

Richard S. (rich815) · Jun 1, 2013

I love the combo:

El Cerrito Hills Park Hasselblad500CM 150Sonnar Ilford Delta100 HC-110dilH 9min30sec 20C 2010-09 VSmac 9000 Scan-110114-0002 by rich8155 (Richard Sintchak)

Marin Headlands Rolleiflex3-5E Planar Delta100 HC-110dilH 9min 20C 30secAg 07-2010 VSmac 9000 Scan-101111-0003 by rich8155 (Richard Sintchak)

Ben Nimitz Trail Tilden Park Hasselblad500CM 80Planar Ilford Delta100 HC-110dilH 9min30sec 20C 2011-01 VSmac 9000 Scan-110110-0002 by rich8155 (Richard Sintchak)

Gerald C Koch · Jun 1, 2013

Look here http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/ Lots of useful information on HC-110.

Sal Santamaura · Jun 1, 2013

Shootar401 said:
...on par with T-grain developers...

What's a "T-grain developer?"

Gerald C Koch · Jun 2, 2013

A T-grain developer is one that is specifically formulated to work with T-grain emulsions such as Ilford Delta and Kodak Tmax.

kintatsu · Jun 2, 2013

I've found it to be a great combination. I developed my shots in a tray for 9 minutes in Dilution E, and got beautiful results. The one big thing I noticed about this combination is that it's really sensitive to changes in agitation and time. Smaller changes seem to be needed to expand your range, at least so far this has been my experience.

David Brown · Jun 2, 2013

rwreich said:
I looked for published times and only found dilution B & E. All the different variations really turn me off from experimenting. I like knowing why something works when I use it.

Then use Dilution B.

Sal Santamaura · Jun 2, 2013

Gerald C Koch said:
A T-grain developer is one that is specifically formulated to work with T-grain emulsions such as Ilford Delta and Kodak Tmax.

Delta emulsions are core-shell technology, not T-grain. Kodak uses T grains.

That aside, referring to developers in a way that implies they're "for" these specific emulsion types, and conversely implying they're "not for" cubic grain emulsions, is neither standard practice nor wise. Any black and white film developer can be used with any black and white negative film. Results from various combinations thereof range from very bad to excellent, irrespective of what the developer is called or was allegedly intended for. Trying them out is the only way to determine suitability of negatives for a given purpose/taste.

Kodak screwed up when naming its TMAX and TMAX-RS developers. As a result, people have been confused ever since.

Gerald C Koch · Jun 2, 2013

Sal Santamaura said:
Delta emulsions are core-shell technology, not T-grain. Kodak uses T grains.

That aside, referring to developers in a way that implies they're "for" these specific emulsion types, and conversely implying they're "not for" cubic grain emulsions, is neither standard practice nor wise.

Not according to information on the web.

"Tabular-grain film is a type of photographic film that includes nearly all color films, T-MAX films from Kodak (with Kodak's T-grain emulsion), Delta films from Ilford Photo and the Fujifilm Neopan films. The silver halide crystals in the film emulsion are flatter and more tabular (hence T-Grain)."

Unfortunately things are not usually named by scientists or engineers but by marketing weasels.

Hexavalent · Jun 2, 2013

Tabular grains can also be core-shell. There are patents that describe the combination of crystal technologies.

IIRC, "T-Grain" is a Kodak trademark - other manufacturers use different names: 'Tabular' is the generic term.

Sal Santamaura · Jun 2, 2013

Gerald C Koch said:
Not according to information on the web...

Ah, yes, the Internet. Not the most unimpeachable source.

Here's what HARMAN has to say about the subject:

http://www.harmantechnology.com/DotNetNuke/Technology/CrystalGrowth/tabid/180/Default.aspx

Roger Cole · Jun 2, 2013

And conversely, you can certainly use developers marketed for new tech films with old tech films. I use T-Max RS regularly for other films, because it's convenient, I've been using it for years and it works well.

There's absolutely nothing special about some developers that make them work better with old tech or new tech films except, as mentioned above, that newer films tend to be finer grained so relatively grainier developers can be used for their other benefits if desired without excess graininess.

Roger Cole · Jun 2, 2013

I have also found that I don't care for T-Max films in Diafine where I like it a lot with most older films. I could conjecture about why but would no doubt be wrong, and told so. However it does "work" it just doesn't get the effective speed I see with older films. It can still be useful for compensation.

Gerald C Koch · Jun 2, 2013

An example of a developer specifically designed for tabular grain films would be Crawley's FX-37.

Gerald C Koch · Jun 2, 2013

Sal Santamaura said:
Here's what HARMAN has to say about the subject:

Of course both Harmon and Ilford have a dog in the fight and patents to defend. They would be touchy about terminology. Still no matter what the technology is called it is usually all lumped under the term tabular grain.

Xerox Corporation for many years tried to stop the use of xerox as a verb. This was an attempt to defend their trade name. They failed and people are free to say "I xeroxed that document" without fear of lawsuit.

Richard S. (rich815) · Jun 2, 2013

Gerald C Koch said:
Not according to information on the web.

"Tabular-grain film is a type of photographic film that includes nearly all color films, T-MAX films from Kodak (with Kodak's T-grain emulsion), Delta films from Ilford Photo and the Fujifilm Neopan films. The silver halide crystals in the film emulsion are flatter and more tabular (hence T-Grain)."

Unfortunately things are not usually named by scientists or engineers but by marketing weasels.

I thought only the Neopan Acros was tabular type and supposedly a "hybrid" at that, or so I've read. I'm pretty sure the Neopan 400, Neopan 1600 and certainly the Neopan 100SS are not. But who knows if any, even the Neopan 400, is even made anymore....I guess Acros is.

Ilford Delta in HC110

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