It's not going to get much finer grained than TMAX 100/Delta 100 in Xtol. That's your best bet. To be honest, Delta 100/D-76 isn't too far behind. I'd stick with it... Great work by the way!!
Hi fatso:
By the way are you from Montreal?
Michael
I can't imagine finer medium format combination than a tabular grain 100 speed film.
We haven't been offered a tabular grain 50 speed or 25 speed film so I don't know how you can do much better.
I'd experiment at least a bit with same film but 4x5 or 8x10 see if that is more satisfying.
Otherwise take some of the fine suggestions here.
Your example shows adequate shadow detail without evidence that you rated the film at half speed. But I want to point out that for the finest results, I believe you need to absolutely give the minimum exposure that provides shadow detail (instead of the safer "half box speed" technique that guarantees results but with potential for overexposure... which would mean more grain).
And the answer is... Diafine. Or a similar two-bath developer. I could list the reasons why this is the "magic bullet" but no less an authority than Sandy King has already done so in View Camera magazine, the article which you can find here.
I used Diafine with TMAX 400, flatbed scans and pigment prints. After being back in the darkroom for over a year, I recently pulled these prints out of the file and realized... gulp... they may be the nicest prints I've ever made.
That is one nice image.
Concerning technical film, this stuff is also said to be amazing, but I have no personal experience with it:
http://www.adox.de/english/ADOX Films/Premium/ADOX_Films/ADOX_CMS_Films.html
I've offered you some experience and examples on your previous (there was a url link here which no longer exists), which you seem to have abandoned. But to be fair, they were only analog based and not hybrid.
Pyro will be sharp, but grainier than moderately diluted solvent developers such as XTOL, D76 etc. That's the tradeoff. It won't do anything special from a tonality perspective. Stain density can also vary from film to film so you'd have to experiment. It depends on what kind of printing you are doing.
Regarding slow films in the 25ISO range, they are typically higher in contrast and/or have a shorter scale. That's the great thing about a film like TMax 100 if you like fine grain. It will be as, or near as fine grained as a conventional 25ISO film, but with a very long scale.
Regarding XTOL, it is only a high contrast developer if you develop that way. It is a general purpose solvent developer. You can get any level of contrast you want out of it. It gives good film speed and very fine grain at a variety of dilutions. Very flexible.
You're kind of all over the map here. In your original post you wanted fine grain and a long tonal scale. But you're talking about all sorts of different films, Rodinal, Pyro etc. First ask yourself what image characteristics you are really looking for, and how you will be printing. Based on that, choose a film. Then, to build on the characteristics of the film, choose the developer. Then, it requires practice to get the most out of the film/developer combination.
If the combo you just tried looked good stick with it.
Hi Bill, your suggestion sounds interesting, how do I determine proper exposure ? Should I measure and expose for a different zone than 18% gray ?
Paul
PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong, is efke25 still produced?
Nope, as far as I can gather from (there was a url link here which no longer exists), what you find of EFKE and ADOX (25, 50, 100) out there is the remaining rolls from the final stock.
The only 25 ISO film I know of that is in production and avaiable is Rollei Ortho 25 ISO , never tried it though, but if it is in the same class as Rollei retro 80s regarding grain and resolution it could be very good. Digitaltruth has some info on it
Found a review here it may be something that the OP is looking for perhaps...?
My favorite: Verichrome Pan 120 developed in Microdol X is really crisp. Also, very partial to Panatomic X.
~Steve
Thanks I did see that film before actually but it's ortho, so I would need an actual dark room and a red light to develop it properly wouldn't I? And I don't have that, I have a sink and a light tight Patterson tank...
~Stone
The Noteworthy Ones - Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1 / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic
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No, you develop the film as any other black and white film.
Ortho just means that the film isn't very sensetive to red, making reds dark in the photo (and blue skies probably goes towards white if you're not using a filter on your camera).
I only have a toilet-room and paterson tanks, works very very well, should work just as well with the Rollei film too, nothing special is needed.
Indeed, I've heard about such processing as well.
I do think that developing the film "by eye" will prove to be much more difficult than it might seem.
The light is dimmer, which will make it harder to judge the density, most likely forcing you to shoot a lot of ortho-film before you get the "eye" adjusted.
- I am also unsure if you can actually develop the whole time in a red safe-light, or if you can just safely inspect it shortly during development.
It may be that normal development in a closed tank will be just as (in)effective to home in on the perfect development for it.
(Rollei Ortho 25 is also supposed to be pretty contrasty, so from what I read on the links, you'd need to use a compensating developer to "flatten out the curve" on it a bit).
I actually do have a roll of Rollei Ortho 25 on thawing from the freezer right now, planning on shooting it tomorrow, as it is very foggy and non-contrasty over here this weekend, so it should be good........probably.....
The Rollie appears to be panchromatic.
http://www.freestylephoto.biz/pdf/product_pdfs/rollei/Rollei_Ortho.pdf
Thanks I did see that film before actually but it's ortho, so I would need an actual dark room and a red light to develop it properly wouldn't I? And I don't have that, I have a sink and a light tight Patterson tank...
~Stone
The Noteworthy Ones - Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1 / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The term you are looking for is "development by inspection".
And that process is really only particularly useful for sheet film, because otherwise how are you going to customize development for each individual shot?
It is still a very useful process (think of most of Karsh's iconic work), but it isn't necessary - time and temperature in a light tight tank will work just peachy.
If you are going to drum scan and print digitally, why not use Portra 160? You can then apply colour filters digitally, instead of having to mount them on the lens and lose light.
I thought the reason no one mentioned 25 ASA films was because they are all discontinued? I thought Pan F+ 50ASA was the slowest film still in production, sure you can get other films for a while from stock but inevitably they are going to run out...
I developed my roll of Efke 25 with Rodinol 1:50 as suggested by Роберт and made some pretty good negatives and thanked him - I didn't have that much else to add
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