perceptol w/ 4x5 Tri-X?

[Cheryl Jacobs]

I finally got a chance to shoot a few frames with my Speed Graphic yesterday. I'd like to develop them and see if I'm doing things right so far. The only developer I have on hand today is perceptol. Can't find any times for tray developing in perceptol, which I suspect may indicate that it's not a good developer for this kind of thing. Still, I don't need perfection today -- I just want to know the camera (and the user) are functioning properly.

Anyone have a guess as to development times?

Thanks in advance -

- CJ

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Perceptol is probably an interesting developer with Tri-X, but the speed should be around 160 or 200. If you've exposed it at 320, it's probably a good idea to wait until you have another developer in hand.

If you want to give it a go, try using the same time as Microdol-X, which is similar to Perceptol. I did a quick check on the Massive Dev Chart, and Microdol-X and Perceptol times are the same for HP5+, so I'd guess they wouldn't be too far apart for Tri-X. Test one sheet first before running the whole batch--maybe 8 min at 68 deg. F. in Perceptol stock would be my guess (Ilford's recommendation for TX 400 rollfilm is EI 200, 10 min. in Perceptol stock, for comparison. Sheet film should be a little less due to constant agitation).

 

[Jorge Oliveira]

Cheryl

I believe that if you dillute Perceptol 1+3 there will not be a speed loss (this is true with Microdol-X).
Not so fine grained, but with LF this may not matter.

Jorge O

 

[Cheryl Jacobs]

Thanks, Jorge and David. I did go ahead and try it, and two of the three negs look pretty good! I'm doing some more developing today, and then will print a few frames to see how I'm doing. This is fun.