Your favorite high speed film and developer recipe?

While exchanging ideas about medium format rangefinders for portraiture, a gentleman from AUZ shared his recipe for pushing his favorite film to 3200 or 6400 and how he soups to it obtain very nice results, including nice mid-tones and acceptable grain.

So, what is your favorite high speed film and development recipe? And, how are the resulting mid-tones and grain?

Thanks,

Jay

Delta 3200 and HC-110. Both in 120 and 35mm.
HC-110 tends to produce soaringly beautiful highlights with slightly held back mid tones. I develop using semi stand technique. I use 5ml of syrup per film at 1+100 dilution, 70*F, 30 minutes, and agitate every 3 minutes with Delta 3200 @ EI 3200.

- Thomas

I shoot TX and TXP quite a bit and soup in Acufine or lately Paul Farber's Acufine substitute (search on Farber and Acufine to find the formula). You get about one stop of legitimate speed at normal contrast.

For large negs that I plan to contact print, I like RAF pyro-metol (in the articles section under "staining developers"), because the tonality and texture are similar to ABC pyro, which I normally use. RAF can get you about 1.5 stops, but the grain would be unacceptable for small negs, unless you wanted a grainy effect.

monkeytumble said:

While exchanging ideas about medium format rangefinders for portraiture, a gentleman from AUZ shared his recipe for pushing his favorite film to 3200 or 6400 and how he soups to it obtain very nice results, including nice mid-tones and acceptable grain.

So, what is your favorite high speed film and development recipe? And, how are the resulting mid-tones and grain?

Thanks,

Jay

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Looking at the Diafine instructions I saw that Neopan 1600 gives the highest speed. (2400) I've tried neither the film nor the combination though.
This thread says 2000 is a good speed:
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14630

I've tried and liked delta 3200 at 1600 in HC-110B

400 tri-x 120mm in 510 pyro or HC 110

mikebarger said:

400 tri-x 120mm in 510 pyro or HC 110

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Mike - a couple guys have shared beautiful results with pushed TRI-X 400 in 120. Would you mind sharing a few more details on your favorite recipe, e.g., ISO for shooting, developer, dilution, developing time, and developing method?

Jay

Graham06 said:

I've tried and liked delta 3200 at 1600 in HC-110B

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How were the mid-tones with the Delta 3200? And, what kind of developing time did you use?

Tri-X @1600 or 3200 in TMax RS works nicely for me.

monkeytumble said:

How were the mid-tones with the Delta 3200? And, what kind of developing time did you use?

Click to expand...

Here are two I thought turned out well:
delta 3200 @1600 in hc-110B roleliflex 2.8f @f/2.8 most likely 1/30s
http://not.bloodylikely.org/photos/2007/November/Halloween4.jpg__view.html
http://not.bloodylikely.org/photos/2007/November/Halloween3.jpg__view.html

The 8x8 prints are slightly better than the scans. The skin tones look a bit better and are a bit darker. I managed to hit black quite well when printing. Didn't record the filter grade.

My developing notes (which are likely but not necessarily for those photos):
delta3200@1600 HC-110B 67F 14:30 => too light. agit. 14,10,5,2 16:00 next time
delta3200@1600 HC-110B 72F 16:00 => low light ok. light agit @14,10,8,6,3

Tough One.

For MF I usually use Ilford Pan F in Perceptol 1:3 at 25 OR Fuji Acros in Rodinal 1:200 semistand.

For LF I use most Acros and FP4 both in Pyrocat-HD.

Gary

I am partial to pushing 120 Tri-X to 1000 with Acufine and to 1600 with Microphen. I'd try it at 1000 with Microphen but I never figured out the times.
I know that's not exactly high speed film but the look I got with available light and particularly with a little bit of fill flash was outstanding.. sharp, contrasty but it printed so well on kodak polymax paper, it's like the tones just fit perfectly on the paper. *sigh*

HP5 or Delta 400 or Delta 3200 in a standard black and white developer. If I have the luxury, I pick one of these films based solely on the contrast in which I will be shooting. HP5 is my go-to film, and I use it as much as I can based on the lighting. If it simply gets too dark, Delta 3200 is next, and also used for very high contrast situations that would be a bear to print on HP5. I use Delta 400 only in certain situations: extremely flat lighting (because it renders more shadow contrast than HP5), or when I need the finest grain possible (almost never except "commercial" lowish light hand held portraits, which I would now do on digital anyhow). I have not done a lot of testing of Delta 400, but I have the other two very controllable.

As for developers, personally, I like HC for its convenience, cost, versatility, and shelf life. It develops any film you throw at it quite easily, and can get all sorts of results with litho film. (I hear you can print quite effectively with it as well in a pinch, though I have not tried it.) It is not grainy. It does not badly increase fog. It doesn't take up much space in my cabinets. Due to its high concentration, it is easily controllable and predictable no matter how old it is, which is what REALLY matters more than anything in all practicality; not the particular characteristics of the developer.

1.) Tri-X at 1200iso in Diafine (3+3) is really beautiful.

2.) T-Max P3200 at 3200iso developed in T-Max developer per the instructions on the box for that iso works very well for me...seems to be dead on as far as yielding a true 3200iso (even though the actual speed of P3200 is more like 1000-1600...or so I understand). This combination is perfect for low light/low contrast situations. I use it a lot....or I use flash with Tri-X at 320 in D-76 or Rodinal (smiling here).

Michael

APX 400 rated @ 250 stand developed in Rodinal 1:100.