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What is the grainiest bw film and developer?

did just develop a Tmax 3200 in Rodinal 1:25, will show that after I get the scans back.

Next cycle's Rodinal plan:
Rollei Paul and Reinhold
Rollei Retro 400
Foma Ortho 400
FPP Derev 400 (pretty sure it's Svema 400)

later cycles:
Delta 3200
Catlabs 320
Shanghai 400
UN54
Double X

SFX 200
Rollei IR
Film Washi Z
 
TheGreatGasMaskMan said:
final(ish) one for this cycle:
Ultrafine Finesse 400 in 1:25 Rodinal which I'm pretty sure is just N74.View attachment 406542View attachment 406543 View attachment 406544View attachment 406545 View attachment 406546
Click to expand...

N74 hasn't been available for a while. Kentmere again? Or Foma?
I'm quite interested in your results btw, and expect fomapan 400 will be the winner amog the affordable films. I like a really grainy look sometimes and would use a minox or 16mm camera, were it not for the lack of wide angle lenses in these formats and the hassle of it all.
 
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pretty sure N74's still available, just in repackaged cases.

I also did do Foma 400 last summer- you can see the results in previous pages
 
big shock, but Tmax 3200 in Rodinal 1:25 has been the grainiest result yet...




Part of the reason I didn't want to use this is because using this film in the daylight in the summer is tricky...
I am also working on a Delta 3200, want to get that finished soon
 
1990 Svema Foto 125, barely an image on it, lost at least 6 stops

 
POTA would also be worth a try for max grain if you don’t mind making your own developer.
 
decided to try HP5 in 1:25 Rodinal, and big shock, the grain is significantly less noticeable than 35mm

I did just drop off a delta 3200 to be scanned so we'll see how that compares to tmax 3200 in the coming weeks
 
The long discontinued Kodak 2475 Recording Film with an ISO of 1000 used to be considered a very grainy film. Here is a result from shooting 1982 expiry film at EI=25 and developing in Rodinal 1:25 9min 20C.
It was heavily fogged, storage is unknown.

 
They sure look grainy but not that grainy. One factor that really should be considered is the scanning. Theses lab scans are not terrible but don't look that great by 2025 standards regarding sharpness and focus and it does affect how the grain is perceived.

I'd suggest trying to "scan" a few frames with a digital camera, a macro lens or if you don't have one a regular 50mm lens and an extension tube, manually adjust the focus on each shot to be perfect (use the x5 digital zoom), and compare the result. Adding sharpness in post also play a significant part on how the grain look.
 

the raw scans are 6048 x 4011 pixels- part of the issue is I've got to reduce the long edge down to 2000 and have a file size under 2mb for it to upload onto this site.
 
Kind of a bonus, early 2000s expired AGFA APX 400, ISO 200, HC110 B. Have a second roll I'll try in Rodinal 1:25 in the spring.
Also trying a different method for image resizing.
 
One i'm satisfied with:
ORWO UN54 in Rodinal 1:25. definitely going to do some push tests and lower dilutions in the future. my only thing is, there are no push times for Rodinal on the massive dev. chart. anybody got any times?


 

I don't have any dev times for rodinal. I have pushed un54 in the past successfully but didn't like the results beyond 200 ISO. It gets very contrasty very quickly.
 
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