Moved by Moderator from a purely analog thread found here:
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/ilfosol-3.175163/
As I'm recovering from a health issue, I've been digging through Photrio archives and playing with new to me chemistry. NB23's Ilfosol comments in this thread and elsewhere made an intriguing proposition, so I bought a bottle.
Here's a high-end 6,300x4,200px (26MP equivalent) scan of HP5+ in Ilfosol 1+9 developed "by the book". Indeed, Ilfosol 3 feels somewhat Rodinal-ish in how tight and crisp the grain looks.
My conclusion is that your workflow dictates, or rather limits, your choice of a developer. Cannot speak for folks who wet print, I don't have that luxury. But those of us who scan prior to printing digitally, we must think about our approach to the complicated topic of sharpening. The demosaiced output from a Bayer sensor usually benefits from some sharpening, and not a single digital camera or a RAW convertor have sharpening disabled by default. But when you're digitizing negatives, even a slightest application of sharpening leads to unnatural looking "wormy" grain. That's why I've been shooting primarily Delta films and developing in Xtol, this gave me ability to digitally make natural looking prints that looked similar to wet prints. I see why someone wouldn't be happy with HP5+ in Ilfosol 3 or Rodinal because this combination is often described as "sandpaper" online. I blame sharpening or the mythical "grain aliasing" (which in itself is a complex topic).
However, things change once you cross a certain resolution threshold. Switching to a 60mp pixel-shifting sensor with a high-end macro lens allowed me to make scans that are 9,000 pixels wide. Turning off sharpening and downsampling to 5,000-6,000 pixels produces naturally looking, tight and pleasant grain without "worms". Basically, high-res no-sharpening scanning makes developers like Ilfosol shine even on HP5+. In the end, high-res scanning gives the hybrid shooters the same choice of smooth-vs-sharp as wet printers have enjoyed, and Ilfosol 3 is a fantastic developer to get that crispness when you need it.
Side comment: I do not know what scanning resolution makes this possible. In my case the jump was quite drastic from a 26MP APS-C sensor with OK macro lens to a 60MP sensor with an excellent macro lens chosen via the recommendation of https://www.closeuphotography.com/
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/ilfosol-3.175163/
As I'm recovering from a health issue, I've been digging through Photrio archives and playing with new to me chemistry. NB23's Ilfosol comments in this thread and elsewhere made an intriguing proposition, so I bought a bottle.
Here's a high-end 6,300x4,200px (26MP equivalent) scan of HP5+ in Ilfosol 1+9 developed "by the book". Indeed, Ilfosol 3 feels somewhat Rodinal-ish in how tight and crisp the grain looks.
My conclusion is that your workflow dictates, or rather limits, your choice of a developer. Cannot speak for folks who wet print, I don't have that luxury. But those of us who scan prior to printing digitally, we must think about our approach to the complicated topic of sharpening. The demosaiced output from a Bayer sensor usually benefits from some sharpening, and not a single digital camera or a RAW convertor have sharpening disabled by default. But when you're digitizing negatives, even a slightest application of sharpening leads to unnatural looking "wormy" grain. That's why I've been shooting primarily Delta films and developing in Xtol, this gave me ability to digitally make natural looking prints that looked similar to wet prints. I see why someone wouldn't be happy with HP5+ in Ilfosol 3 or Rodinal because this combination is often described as "sandpaper" online. I blame sharpening or the mythical "grain aliasing" (which in itself is a complex topic).
However, things change once you cross a certain resolution threshold. Switching to a 60mp pixel-shifting sensor with a high-end macro lens allowed me to make scans that are 9,000 pixels wide. Turning off sharpening and downsampling to 5,000-6,000 pixels produces naturally looking, tight and pleasant grain without "worms". Basically, high-res no-sharpening scanning makes developers like Ilfosol shine even on HP5+. In the end, high-res scanning gives the hybrid shooters the same choice of smooth-vs-sharp as wet printers have enjoyed, and Ilfosol 3 is a fantastic developer to get that crispness when you need it.
Side comment: I do not know what scanning resolution makes this possible. In my case the jump was quite drastic from a 26MP APS-C sensor with OK macro lens to a 60MP sensor with an excellent macro lens chosen via the recommendation of https://www.closeuphotography.com/
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I also have a few 11x14 wet prints from my college days, but those aren't as useful since that was long time ago and I don't know which film/developer combination was used.
