Shooting Adox CHS 50 for the first time.

Hello

Just ordered some of this film to experiment with. Have been shooting mostly 400tx and 125px with a nikon F5 and F100. I usually have a yellow filter on and am looking to add some variety. Anybody got any tips on developers and times for this film? I got D-76, Tmax, and Xtol on hand. Any particular filters to complement this film? I really like the look of old photos with some grain dont really need crystal clear images.

well, you arent really going to get too much grain out of this film unless you enlarge the hell out of it. It is a nice old-style film, by that non-t grain. It prints well and sometimes a little different to get used to when you process it because of the short times, a little dilution change could help with that, but its a fun film over all. I thought that it reticulated easier than films using new technology, but that was mostly error on my part. Also, make sure that you use a hardening agent in your fixer. You dont want your emulsion to slide off (almost made that mistake once with this film, too.)

I've used a lot of Adox CHS 25 and 100, but never 50, but I would recommend Rodinal 1+50 with both of those films. Make sure you give it a pre-soak though.

I've used Rodinal and Xtol replenished. Both give really clean results. The thing is to nail your exposure or bracket, and be sure not to overdevelop. It's a bit finicky, but really nice if you hit on a good combo.

Thanks alot fellas. will give it a try and report back with what I get.

I love this film and found I got a bit more grain and contrast by shooting CHS 50 at 100 ISO and developing in XTOL 1:1 for 11.5 minutes with 3 inversions every 30 seconds.

A lot of people like the Adox/Efke films better with a 1-stop push. I don't find it makes a *huge* difference as compared to box speed, but the additional contrast can be nice.

I believe CHS 50, like CHS 25, is "orthopanchromatic" rather than fully panchromatic, meaning it has a reduced sensitivity to red. Tonalities will sometimes not be what your eye expects if you're used to pan film, and it's probably a good idea to use a yellow filter routinely when shooting in sunlight.

It's a good film, although I'm not sure I really have very many reasons to use it rather than CHS 25. I've developed it in PC-TEA, which behaves more or less like Xtol 1+2, and been happy with the results; minimal grain of a basically pleasing character, and razor-sharp (or would be if I were better at critical focus).

-NT