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Plus-X - What the...?

Thomas Bertilsson said:
Here's a neg scan from the Xtol negatives. I think I will use Plus-X when I can, it looks absolutely fantastic! Love it.
- Thomas
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Now, that looks more like what I would have expected from Plus-X. Years ago I shot a lot on Plus-X and loved it. It wasn't making sense to me that you had bad results.

C
 
Photo Engineer said:
I am so glad that there is a Kodak product that an APUG member likes.
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I have to say that I prefer Ilford products in general, but I seem to keep having little stashes of Plus-X appear in my film cache. The elves must add them to my online shopping carts.

(Plus-X in PMK is magical stuff...)
 
"(Plus-X in PMK is magical stuff...)"

Yep, not half bad with PyroCat MC either. Now if they would only bring it back in sheet film sizes, 5x7 to start with.
 
df cardwell said:
were you trying to get a shot of the falcons ?

no, it was last fall, and just a drive by shooting

cool, though, about the falcons !
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Its too bad you missed my offer then. I gave away 2 rolls of the old PX (100 ft rolls). I had posted an offer here on APUG.

Next time you drive by, call me. I'll give you a demo of something or other.

PE
 
Photo Engineer said:
Its too bad you missed my offer then. I gave away 2 rolls of the old PX (100 ft rolls). I had posted an offer here on APUG.

Next time you drive by, call me. I'll give you a demo of something or other.

PE
Click to expand...

DONE !
 
Hi Randy, thanks for your tip. I have been using Ilford Delta 3200 for my portraits and love it. I will continue down that path, but might throw a roll of Plus-X in if I can afford to experiment some time.
- Thomas
 
I think that this frame was touching something during development (possibly the wall of the tank or the film).
Personally I have never had problems with Kodak products in general.
 
I'm pretty confident now that the problem was due to contamination. It was the first batch of negs I processed after returning home from Photostock, and I must have forgotten to clean out the 2 liter graduate (which I know I've used to mix both developer and fixer in the past and I cannot remember what I mixed last. Time to buy one more). The Plus-X negs were thinner than the Tri-X negs, and those are slightly (but thankfully not problematically) affected as well. Printing some of the negs in the darkroom revealed more than the naked eye could see on the negs. Luckily I print lith where it isn't that critical that the negs are 100% perfect.
Thanks to everybody for chiming in, and sorry for wasting your time!
- Thomas
 
Plus-X & Pyrocat-MC = Bad!

I couldn't shake the thought of getting similar results from Plus-X that I get from Tri-X. So I developed another roll of Plus-X in Pyrocat and guess what - same stupid results as before. What the heck is going on here? I get all kinds of marks on a roll of Plus-X, with no other films in the tank.
My Tri-X, Foma 400, and FP4+ comes out just fine. Now I really really know that this combination will never get used again.

When the film comes out of the wash there's this residue on it, and only on Plus-X, no other films do this to me in Pyrocat-MC (glycol stock). It's like a milky residue that disappears if you touch it, but it doesn't rinse off. It's only in Pyrocat, not with Xtol. Is this a pH problem? Water? Can a film and a developer actually be incompatible? This is sooooo strange.

Just thought I'd fire a warning shot.

- Thomas
 
Thomas, are you using distilled H2O for mixing P'Cat; both stock and diluted solutions? Distilled is recommended for pyro mixing. Could this be your answer???
 
Possibly. I've never used distilled water before, and never had a problem in the past 2-3 years I've used that developer - until Plus-X happened. If I have to use distilled water I'll just stop trying, because that's just not worth the hassle.
Thanks, Jim!
- Thomas
 
Distilled water


89 cents a gallon at my local store. Pretty cheap hassle free insurance. I always use it for developers and Photo-Flo. One more potential variable taken out of the equation is how I look at it.

Your generic drinking water is a good substituted, too.
 
Trying distilled water at least just the once will tell you if the problem is water related. Are you shooting 120 format plus-x? I'm tempted to try some out myself just to see if I have any trouble. This is an odd problem you are having, I'd love to hear the solution.
 
That's true, Paul. Even at 89 cents per gallon it's not bad, but tap water is right at the sink at much much less than that. I am not saying I don't want to use distilled water. I prefer a solution that excludes the use, though.
So I'll use a different developer. I'm trying Rodinal next, if that doesn't work out I'll continue with Xtol, because it's working really well at 1+3 and without a hint of the same trouble I'm having with Pyrocat.

Thanks for chiming in.

- Thomas

 
Uerule #1, use what works! If Plus-X works in X-tol, stay with it. If it doesn't work in P'Cat, distilled or not, why keep wasting rolls of PX120 to find out???

This thread got me to go back to some shots I took on PX a few years ago; great stuff. Souped in Rodinal and the negs show some really great tonality.

Thomas, you may start to love PX in Rodinal; try the 1+50 dilution.

I did a search for the times (MDC) for P'Cat and PX; it's not listed, but there are times for TX and FP-4. Odd, maybe it simply isn't a good combo. Try a snip from an outdated roll of 35mm for your distilled water testing; a roll from the local camera store, etc. You'd think it would be a good combo?
 
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And Plus-X is tough!

Just to add some semi-useless information . . . I've been fleshing out info in my PBase galleries on my motley collection of cameras and wanted to put a roll through an old Flexaret TLR acquired at a flea market in the late 1970s. I fished it out of a box in the closet where I'm sure it saw temperatures beyond 80ºF during my pre-central air days. Started to open the back to see what the inside looked like -- HORRORS! -- backing paper visible! I was so sure it was empty I never even opened the slide on the red window. :rolleyes:

Immediately slammed back shut and wound film through. It was Kodak Plus-X! Developed it in HC110 1+63 and behold, there are images on it! The content indicates it was taken in 1981 documenting a project. So only 27 years later I was able to salvage a few images. Apparently I had wound to the next blank frame before putting it away, so the momentary back opening lost none of the 8 shots on the roll. The base density level was notably higher than normal, and there appears to be some clumping (or something) in the grain structure, but by golly, there's images.

I recollect the Flexaret was pressed into service after my Konica FP 35mm had a shutter failure. I guess the Canon A-1 that replaced it must have arrived before finishing the second roll in the Flexaret. And I just wandered off track with the new toy. (A previous roll was developed back at the time.)

DaveT
 

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Tried Rodinal!

I had a bottle of Rodinal sitting around, collecting dust. So I thought I should try it with my mis-fortunate rolls of Plus-X.
These are shot with an Agfa Commander folding camera. No light meter, so I went on judging visually what the shutter times should be. Based on that I thought that stand or extreme minimal agitation was called for. So I developed 1+100 at 70*F for half an hour with agitation first minute and once at 15 minutes. It worked very well! I'm a bit smitten, I have to confess.
No distilled water, good old tap stuff...

Shot in Las Vegas, at the World Market Outlet. Cool place. Wonderful light for this kind of shot.

Thanks for all you help. I think I found my solution!

- Thomas
 

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I'm glad you found one of the "magic bullets"! Enjoy and good luck!
 
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