What developer to get best results with Efke?

sunnyroller · Aug 15, 2005

I just ordered each of the three speeds of 120 Efke rollfilm from J and C. I know there is a development chart on the site that lists times for a variety of developers, but I would like to hear what particular developer you think brings out the particular qualities of these films. I know that advice from others is no replacement for me just trying out several different formulas on my own, but right now I would like to find out what others think a particular developer "brings to the table" for Efke films. I.e., If you like X result, try Y developer. I would then have some starting points to begin my own experimentation. I plan to do some portraits with the first few rolls. Thanks for any help ya'll can give me. Sunny

Paul Howell · Aug 15, 2005

I like Efke 25 with Rodinal.

wildbill · Aug 15, 2005

Efke 25 rated at 25 in rodinal 1:50 for 9min @ 68deg, Use a water pre-bath for two minutes. Use water only for the stop. Handle the stuff very carefully or the emulsion may scratch or come off. Efke 25 is very contrasty, good for overcast or open shade. I've gotten some good results in sunny conditions as well. The maple river shot in my gallery is efke 25. pm me if you'd like to see more examples. good luck

David A. Goldfarb · Aug 15, 2005

I like Efke 100 at EI 50 in ABC pyro 1+1+1+7, 6 min, 68 deg. F, with constant agitation in trays or every 15 sec. in a daylight tank for normal contrast, but it might be too grainy for smaller rollfilm formats. If you're shooting 6x7 or larger and use a diffusion or cold light enlarger though, you might give it a try, maybe at 1+1+1+12 and targeted for printing on grade 3 for a thinner, finer grained neg.

Efke 100 looks great with fine grain, good sharpness, and nice tonality also at EI 200 in Acufine, 4 min. at 68 deg. F, agitating every 30 sec. All of these shots were with PL 100 4x5" in Acufine--

http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/halloween

JohnArs · Aug 15, 2005

Take the best soup its called XTOL still produced by Kodak!

Jan Cornelius · Aug 15, 2005

Neofin Blue .... works great but is expensive, I personally stick to Rodinal, one shot liquid developers provide more flexibility than powder solutions, and as said I like the results.

Tom Hoskinson · Aug 15, 2005

Pyrocat-HD is my favorite with all three of the Efke films. I use these films in 35mm and 120 rollfilms and sheet films through 8x10.

My second choices are PC-Tea (phenidone/ascorbic acid/triethanolamine) or MC-Tea (metol/ascorbic acid/triethanolamine).

All three of these developers are one-shot concentrates.

HC-110 with ascorbate (Gainer's perverted HC-110) is a possibility, but I have not tried it. I think that Kodak's developers are likely to go away in the near future.

Another possibility is Rodinal with ascorbate, I have not tried that one yet either.

VoidoidRamone · Aug 15, 2005

Lately I've been shooting a fair amount of R25 (EI 12) and developing in Rodinal 1:100 for 9min/70f. I have found this to be a lot easier to control than shooting R25 at 25 and developing in Rodinal.
-Grant

jon · Aug 15, 2005

VoidoidRamone said:
Lately I've been shooting a fair amount of R25 (EI 12) and developing in Rodinal 1:100 for 9min/70f.

Second Rodinal 1:100. I got some from fellow apugger Jordan and it's gorgeous. Although I shot at 25 and a minute more, still great results.

Mongo · Aug 15, 2005

For contact printing with 8x10, Efke 100 in Pyrocat-HD is my favorite combination. For enlarging in all other sizes, I generally use Rodinal (either 1:100 for standard agitation or 1:300 for stand development) depending on what's on the film.

Pete H · Aug 16, 2005

Jan Cornelius said:
Neofin Blue .... works great but is expensive, I personally stick to Rodinal, one shot liquid developers provide more flexibility than powder solutions, and as said I like the results.

I agree - Neofin Blue (for Efke 25) when I'm feeling rich and Rodinal most (all?) of the time. According to another thread, Neofin Blue is the Beutler formula, so you could mix your own much more cheaply than buying it from Tetenal. I haven't tried that.

Lee L · Aug 16, 2005

I've recently tried Efke 25 with Rodinal 1:100 and less agitation. I agitated for the first 45 seconds, then one inversion every 3 minutes for the rest of the development time. (Mine was adjusted from titrisol's suggestion time and temp to about 12 minutes at 74F.)

I posted a shot in this thread:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists) Another car shot, as that was going on in town the day I wanted to shoot real photos to test, and a good test subject with black wheels in shade and bright sun reflections and lots of chrome. EI used was 20, but 25 would have done fine.

You can count the threads in the stitching and in the mesh vent on the lower right, and grain is minimal.

Will post another shot in this thread.

Lee

Jan Cornelius · Aug 16, 2005

Pete, my wife will not allow me to mix chemicals in the house, I am known to be clumsy!
I "Inject" rodinal with a seringe due to the small quantities required, and have injected myself twice up till now..... I think my wife might be right ...

As for Neofin, it does give the "crispiest" negative and print the thumb of the automobile below is a good example of that, but for my taste it looks too digital, again my wife has one of these full format canon slr's and these are the sort of prints she gets, I like the grain, or at least a touch of grain.....

Ahh ... and any metal surface will look great with efke, as will overcast days. I'm not to fond about it's responsiveness to contrasty subjects

MikeS · Aug 16, 2005

I've been told that the Efke emulsions are on the soft side, so extra care is needed while processing them. Would PMK be a good developer for R100 as it tans the emulsion as it develops, so it should harden it a bit. But how will the negatives LOOK with PMK? Also, what would be the recommended speed to use with PMK and/or PMK+?

-Mike

noseoil · Aug 16, 2005

Efke and PMK pyro. Efke 25 at asa 12 and 7:00 at 70f will get you started. Efke 100 at asa 50 and about 12:00 at 70f. The 25 is a very contrasty film, so 7 minutes is an "average" to use. Sheet film can be a bit more exact, but depends entirely on the SBR.

As to "tanning" and hardening, perhaps it helps a bit, but this emulsion is very soft, so kidd gloves and a light touch are still the rule. tim

Jordan · Aug 16, 2005

I develop Efke 25 in Rodinal 1+50 for 4'30" at 20C. The EI is about 20. Agitation (after the first ~20 seconds) is two inversions per minute. Works very nicely for me.

c6h6o3 · Aug 16, 2005

David A. Goldfarb said:
I like Efke 100 at EI 50 in ABC pyro 1+1+1+7, 6 min, 68 deg. F, with constant agitation in trays or every 15 sec. in a daylight tank for normal contrast, but it might be too grainy for smaller rollfilm formats.
http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/halloween

I, too, have gotten very nice negatives with this combination. I prefer the 50 speed, however, which I rate at 25. It's "orthopanchromatic", and the R100 isn't. Efke yields radiant skin tones, making it the one film I prefer to TMY for portraits, and it has the added advantage of development by inspection which I can't do with TMax.

I've enlarged 120 format TMY/ABC 1:1:1:7 negatives to 8" x 8" with no discernible grain without a loupe. Efke is a whole lot finer grained than that.

fschifano · Aug 16, 2005

Jan Cornelius said:
Pete, my wife will not allow me to mix chemicals in the house, I am known to be clumsy!
I "Inject" rodinal with a seringe due to the small quantities required, and have injected myself twice up till now..... I think my wife might be right ...

There's an easy fix to that problem you know. Don't use a syringe with a needle. Go to the local drugstore and get a children's medicine dosing syringe. No needles!

Gerald Koch · Aug 16, 2005

If you are experiencing a problem with Efke films being delicate try using a chrome alum stop bath. This provides greater hardening of the emulsion than what is provided by plain alum. Use a 3% solution of potassium chromium alum (Kodak SB-3). Agitate continuously during the first minute. Allow the film to remain in the bath for 3 to 5 minutes with agitation every minute.

mikewhi · Aug 16, 2005

Lee L said:
I've recently tried Efke 25 with Rodinal 1:100 and less agitation. I agitated for the first 45 seconds, then one inversion every 3 minutes for the rest of the development time. (Mine was adjusted from titrisol's suggestion time and temp to about 12 minutes at 74F.)

I posted a shot in this thread:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists) Another car shot, as that was going on in town the day I wanted to shoot real photos to test, and a good test subject with black wheels in shade and bright sun reflections and lots of chrome. EI used was 20, but 25 would have done fine.

You can count the threads in the stitching and in the mesh vent on the lower right, and grain is minimal.

Will post another shot in this thread.

Lee

Lee:

This is stunning. Is this an enlargement or a contact. What format negative was used?

Thanks.

-Mike

Kevin Caulfield · Aug 16, 2005

Jan Cornelius said:
Pete, my wife will not allow me to mix chemicals in the house, I am known to be clumsy!
I "Inject" rodinal with a seringe due to the small quantities required, and have injected myself twice up till now..... I think my wife might be right ...

So, Jan, would you describe yourself as "well-developed"? I think there are others on this site who deliberately inject themselves with Rodinal.

rusty71 · Aug 16, 2005

The Efke 25 works really well with Rodinal. I like it 1:100 with stand development and minimal agitation. See:
http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~rrosener/Kiev_ivy.jpg
Efke 100 is a very versatile film that can be souped in nearly anything. But Rodinal 1:50 works well for it, and so does plain old D-76 undiluted.
Efke 50 is like a lower contrast ilford Pan F. It works well in Rodinal 1:50.

One very curious thing is that the 25 and 50 emuslsions are slightly faster outside or with strong UV light. If you really dig, you'll see that the box speeds are for Tungsten light. You can shoot R25 at ISO 32 and R50 at 64-80 ISO outside in strong sun or open shade.

Lee L · Aug 16, 2005

mikewhi said:
Lee:

This is stunning. Is this an enlargement or a contact. What format negative was used?

Thanks.

-Mike

MIke,

Thanks. This is 35mm, a negative scan at 2720 dpi on a Canoscan 2710 from a negative that has a gamma of about 0.6. I just did a gamma correction and placed the high and low tones where they should fall, nothing heroic that couldn't be done easily in the darkroom. Also reduced it from 3808 x 2556 to 650 x n. Haven't had time to print it yet, as I've been too busy in the intervening week. It was too crowded to shoot entire cars, so I just decided to shoot details with a 75 Color Skopar on an R3A that day, and got a huge percentage of shots I liked.

This film/developer combo reminds me of Panatomic-X and Rodinal 1:100. I had a shot with that combo done at 11x14 (from 35mm) and the professor reviewing my portfolio for entry into an art dept photo class kept going back to it. After he asked me what I used for film, developer, and camera, he just kept staring at it hard and scanning it for detail for 5 minutes. Didn't end up taking the class, as I quit grad school and got into studio work a week or two later. That was 1981.

Lee

Jordan · Aug 16, 2005

Lee L said:
This film/developer combo reminds me of Panatomic-X and Rodinal 1:100.

Lee, very funny you should mention that... Jon (who posted earlier in this thread) gave me some old Pan X from a 100' bulk roll to try (he bought a used bulk loader, and lo and behold...) I developed it in Rodinal 1+50. I primarily scan my negs these days, but the first thing I said to myself when the image came up was "Looks like Efke 25 in Rodinal!"

ongarine · Aug 17, 2005

The Efke 25 works really well with 510 Pyro 1:100 with intermittent agitation.
Time is 6 minutes for 120 format.
The Efke 25 is a "difficult" film to develope properly. In the past years I souped it mostly with Rodinal 1:50 for dark subjects and 1:100 for sunny or open shadows. It was quite good in every situation, but I do not like too much the contrasty in most negatives.
Yesterday I developed in 510 Pyro a 120 roll to test the developer and I have a very interesting negative. I'm going to darkroom for contact printing and hope my eyes do not fail me.

What developer to get best results with Efke?

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