Shanghai 4x5 in Pyrocat HD

I took two identical shots in the same holder, and developed one in HC110, and here is the same shot in Pyrocat HD. I posted the HC110 version a couple of days ago, but like an idiot reversed the shot on my lightbox. This one is done with the emulsion side away from the lens, so it is correctly oriented.

I'll post the other in this same thread over the next day or two, when I have a chance to reverse the image.

In the mean time, same camera (Linhof Kardan 4x5), same lens (Nikkor-W 180mm f5.6) and exposure (1/60th at f11 if I remember correctly.), taken within one minute of each other.

For those of you who'd like to try Shanghai in Pyrocat HD, I'm going to suggest that the two products are made for each other. I used the developer at 1:1:100, rated the film at ASA 100, and developed it for 12.5 minutes at 20.0 degrees C.

This is not a great picture, but that's not the point of the exercise - it's my first 4x5 neg in pyro, and I love it. There are no blown highlights, lots of shadow detail and separation in the neg, and it's got more contrast and tonal range than the HC110 version.

Thanks for looking in.

Here's the first picture, HC110, restored to correct orientation.

The first shot is a lot sharper. The second one looks muddy. Whatever you used for the first one, that's the one.

With 120 Shanghai film I got very sharp results using Mic-X full strength. Not sure if they were as sharp as they would be in Pyro, but it works well w/ the film.

Michael R 1974 said:

I don't see any difference in image structure (not that you would without magnification anyway). The first is just higher in contrast.

Click to expand...

That's the problem with using a computer screen to compare things. A computer screen only resolves about 1.5 megapixels, so if you know what you're doing in your photoshop program, you can make a cell camera picture appear just as sharp and clear as I could with my 24 megapixel Pentax K3.

The computer screen has made, for us who do film and such, a 35mm camera every bit as viable as a 4x5 machine, because the advantages of 4x5 are not apparent in this medium. The same can be said about newspapers, a distinctly inferior pictorial vehicle. It was basically newspapers and magazines that sent medium and large format cameras into niche territory. But make even a 5x7 print and differences can be noted.

The Pyrocat neg (the top one) is better than the bottom one in tonal range, has more highlight detail, and is a bit sharper, although this isn't usually much of an issue in 4x5. So what I'm actually saying is that Pyrocat is a better developer for Shanghai film than HC110.

But according to my sources, Pyrocat is not a good developer for say, TMax 100 or other tabular grain films. I don't know . . . haven't tried it yet. What I can say with some authority is that I prefer Pyrocat for Shanghai in both 4x5 and 120 than HC110 because I've developed and printed both sizes and formats in both soups and find the results superior.

So basically I made this post for those who might be interested in trying the combination.

I use Pyrocat-HD as my main developer, but if you test accordingly, you should get pretty much the same results in most non-staining developers. I posted an image on Shanghai 8x10 developed in Pyrocat-HD... I think it's in my gallery. It is a very nice combination.