Pushing Acros/Legacy Pro w/HC-110

[Chiron]

Has anyone here pushed Acros/Legacy Pro film using HC-110? I accidentally shot a few 35mm rolls at 200 speed. Since I have been getting back into film after a while away, I picked one developer and film (HC-110 & Acros obviously) and plan on learning to really use it.

I have been using Jason Brunner's formula of 1:49 straight from concentrate at 8 minutes 68f/20c which is approximately Dilution E (1:47 from concentrate, and approximate 50% longer dev time than Dil. B). The only ratings I can find for the 35mm Acros/HC-110 combo is on the Massive Dev Chart and the Fuji data sheet for Dilution B standard development.

So long story short, these few rolls aren't important as they don't have great shots on them or anything. But, they could be important to my learning about my particular combination of Acros & HC-110. Is there any kind of rule of thumb about pushing (or pulling) films in general with HC-110 and with Acros in particular?

Also, in the same vein of really learning about this combo, is there any kind of rule of thumb on stand processing timing with HC-110? Or is it usually trial and error? I have tried googling and searching this site but can't really find anything along these lines. The closest thing I've found is this:
Accidently pushed Acros

I just wanted to run it by some of the experienced people here before I actually try to push these rolls. If anyone has any links or pointers for me of things I may have missed, I would appreciate it. I don't consider "learning from mistakes" a waste of money or time as long as I actually, you know, learn something from it.

 

[Peter Schrager]

pushing acros

acros in diafine @200 is NO problem
best, Peter

 

[Chiron]

Ok. Well, even though I don't use Diafine and don't know anything about it, could you post more information (times, temps, etc.) about the process you use to push Acros with Diafine? Maybe other people could find it handy and as a starting reference for their own needs.

Thanks,
Chiron

 

[gurkenprinz]

Hi Chiron,

unfortunately, I have no idea about stand development in HC-110, but I have some experience with pushing Legacy Pro/Neopan films in all speeds. For pushing the Legacy Pro 100 to 200 I have used Dil. B for 6.5 minutes - at 20°C. The negatives look just like others taken at 100 ISO. maybe just a little bit more contrast.

I have also used 10 minutes in Dil. B to push it to 400 which worked just fine. In both cases I agitated for the first 30 seconds and then turned the tank around 3 times at every full minute.

It is just a fantastic film that will push easily to 200 even without stand development.

Well, that was just something to consider, but as I know myself: trial and error can be very entertaining! I have only used Rodinal for stand development, and I have had much fun figuring out how it works. For pushing, I go from 1 hour to 1 and half, also I agitate once in the middle instead of just in the beginning. Maybe some starting point for your stand development experiment?

Anyway, let me know how it turns out. I love HC-110 although I usually pray in the church of Rodinal

greetings from vienna,
gurkenprinz

 

[2F/2F]

Since it was an accident, and not a quest for increased contrast, I'd do it with D-23 or X-Tol with this film, any other "T" film, or Tri-X 400 and HP5. I would do this unless I wanted very popped high tones (which you just might, but I assume you do not, as it was an accidental underexposure).

Also, it will probably be perfectly printable with normal development, if you don't feel like experimenting on this particular roll.

 

[Chiron]

Gurkenprinz, greetings from Dayton, Ohio. Thank you my international friend. That was just the type of information I was looking for! You see I just needed a decent reference point to start from. I could have arbitrarily picked a dilution/time/temperature combination to use as a reference, but that also could have wasted quite a bit of film too. At least here I have a pretty good idea that even with experimenting a bit I may still have some usable negatives. I think I'm going to learn well how to push first, then do the same for stand development (and come back to take note of your info for stand dev. too). Then once I know what I'm doing with both, I'll try pushing with stand development.

Just out of curiosity, how did you figure out your times for HC-110/Acros, Gurkenprinz?

So for future reference:

Acros 100 & Arista Legacy Pro 100 pushed to 200 in HC-100

Dilution B - 6.5 minutes - at 20°C
Dilution E - 13 minutes - at 20°C

Agitate for the first 30 seconds and then turned the tank around 3 times at every full minute.

Acros 100 & Arista Legacy Pro 100 pushed to 400 in HC-100

Dilution B - 10 minutes - at 20°C
Dilution E - 20 minutes - at 20°C

Agitate for the first 30 seconds and then turned the tank around 3 times at every full minute.

 

[Chiron]

2F/2F, thanks for your input. After a hiatus away from film for quite some time I'm getting back into it only now I'm doing a lot more of my own development. So in that vein, I am following through in both my own recommendations as well as what the general consesus here is to do: pick one film and one developer and really learn the ins and outs of the two. At some point in the future I think I might like to try X-Tol as I've heard good things about it.

I think that I'm going to develop one roll with standard development times and two rolls with Dilution E and then see how it goes. While I may have accidentally underexposed, I get some practical learning/experience out of it. Two rolls have very similar shots on them, so one of those two will be the standard developed roll that I can compare against. I'll try to develop them either on my lunch break tomorrow or right after work. I don't have a scanner at the moment, but I'll try to post at least my impressions and thoughts on them afterward.

Thanks guys,
William

 

[gurkenprinz]

Just out of curiosity, how did you figure out your times for HC-110/Acros, Gurkenprinz?

Hi William, It's been a while and my notes don't tell me why I chose these times, but I think it was a guesstimate based on the massive dev chart and the usual pushing rule (1 stop x1.5, 2stops x2.25). It was a lucky guess, as the film turned out perfect and I never had to change anything.

I am not too scientific about developing, and I have found that rough time estimates are usually enough to get decent results with any b/w film. There are so many factors that influence developing other than time that it does not pay off to be too anal about it: Temperature changes during development; some people start the clock and then pour in the developer, others pour and then start the clock; agitation can be from a light swirl to a violent shake depening on who does it; not to forget that the light under which the picture was taken has probably more influence than all of the above; etc.

You will very soon figure out what works best for you, but as a starting point the rule of thumb about pushing will serve you well!

Hope everything will turn out nice, looking forward to hearing how it went!

gurkenprinz

 

[Chiron]

So sorry for the delay in responding to this thread. I had a little bit of a family emergency where I had to help my parents with my grandmother. She fell in her room at the nursing home and yeah....it's been a long week. She's good though, no real injury other than pride and a couple of bruises. Unfortunately though, I simply just haven't had an opportunity to develop the pushed rolls of film yet. I plan on doing that tonight and I feel pretty confident that they'll turn out well. I may try to scan some frames in at work, but they probably won't look too good since our scanners are general purpose and document scanners. But I'll give it a go.

Chiron