Shanghai GP3 Pan 100 developed in Legacy Pro L110

Developed some Shanghai GP3 Pan 100 for the first time today in Legacy Pro L110 at dilution B (7.5 minutes at 68 degrees from the Digital Truth chart w/ an Argoflex TLR w/ a yellow filter) and the results are....different. They're sharper than D76, but don't have the edginess of Rodinal. They also seem a little low in tonality and contrast.

Is this developer more sensitive to exposure? The reason I ask is that the skies look pretty blown out, as are the highlights on some shots (like the cropped shot of the palm tree on the last pic below). I metered everything just like I always do. Maybe the times in the developer need adjusting as well, but not sure if that would account for the sky & highlight issues. It looks like it might be a good developer for portraits from this first roll.

In all fairness, I can't remember what the light was when I took most of these, but on some shots it was obviously an overcast day.

Not sure if one could always trust the times Digital Truth's tables. The Rodinal times given for a perfectly exposed GP3 with my Yashica Mat-124G had given me an almost bulletproof negative.

Looks like a little testing is in order to establish exposure index and development time for your setup. A yellow filter tends to darken shadows whilst an HC-110 type developer is highly active and can overdevelop highlights with too much agitation or too strong concentration. 12-14 mins in dilution H may help this.

Thanks. I'll try the dilution H and cut back on my agitation. I actually went w/ a little over agitation on this first roll w/ the idea that it might bump up the contrast a little, and wasn't aware that doing so might overdevelop the highlights (which is what it seems to have done). My usual developers are Mic-X full strength, Rodinal at 1:25, and very occasionally D76 (or the TD-16 clone). These are all very flexible developers regarding times and agitation.

I don't care what anybody else says about GP3, I like the stuff. I bought 200 rolls of it a few years back, and shared some, shot most, expired 1n 2013 it still shows good, without the number print over others complain about. I love the old school look. I just sold my Mamiya TLR kit and included the last of my stash of it with the sale (43 rolls).

Rick A said:

I don't care what anybody else says about GP3, I like the stuff.

Click to expand...

I could say the same about Lucky SHD100, Fomapan, Nikon EM, Olympus OM10, Zenits, etc, etc.

Nice set momus!

I like the Shanghai film too. In fact, I love it. No quality control issues yet, other than one roll ended mid frame on the last shot (that was out of 15 rolls shot so far).

The more I look at these negs from the L110, which is Freestyle's clone of Kodak's HC110 if anyone was wondering, the more I appreciate what a sharp developer it is. Granted I have blown highlights, but I just need to figure out what ISO to shoot it at and what dilution to use. Looks promising. There's always the full strength Mic-X for full tonality and non existent grain. That developer rocks w/ this film.