Film Again!

[ajz]

I've the itch to shoot B&W film again, since I last did so in the early 1990's! I have a few (recent) rolls of Ilford Delta 100 & 400 film plus boxes of Tmax 400 (35mm & 120). In the past I used D-76  or HC-110. However, I would like to pick one developer for both the Tmax and the Ilford films if possible. Eventually I will settle on Ilford film. I realize there may be issues of grain vs. sharpness depending upon the developer, but would appreciate suggestions from those currently developing film. Stop baths, fixers would be appropriate to the developer?

Suggestions would get me started again into what I once enjoyed.
thanks

aj

[hogloff]

I've the itch to shoot B&W film again, since I last did so in the early 1990's! I have a few (recent) rolls of Ilford Delta 100 & 400 film plus boxes of Tmax 400 (35mm & 120). In the past I used D-76  or HC-110. However, I would like to pick one developer for both the Tmax and the Ilford films if possible. Eventually I will settle on Ilford film. I realize there may be issues of grain vs. sharpness depending upon the developer, but would appreciate suggestions from those currently developing film. Stop baths, fixers would be appropriate to the developer?

Suggestions would get me started again into what I once enjoyed.
thanks

aj

Why not use the process you did when you shot film? Same developers, stops and fixers.

[Paul_Roark]

I've the itch to shoot B&W film again, ...

I've started to make digital copies of my old medium format film negatives.  What I found is that the dilute developer techniques I used in the darkroom era to increase the sharpness of large prints is not appropriate for the digital age.  It's a lot easier to sharpen an older image digitally than it is to suppress the grain that results from dilute development and relatively less frequent agitation.  So, if you think you might want to ultimately make digital prints from these negatives, I would recommend you use the manufacturer's full strength developer recommendations.

Enjoy,

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

[KenS]

Recently I've been scanning my T-Max 100 medium format shots developed in T-Max developer (some shot at early at 1987 with a Pentax 67).
I have found that using Topaz AI Clear to reduce grain AND increase sharpness works very well.  After applying AI Clear (an option in Topaz Denoise AI) I use SRDx as a Photoshop plug-in to eliminate dust and scratches.  This has been working out well also.   SRDx has saved me a huge amount of time and frustration that I previously spent on cleaning the film and scanner carrier, then tediously removing dust from the scanned image.  Typically after SRDx I only spend 5-10 more minutes with the healing brush to get rid of the remaining dust and scratches.  Remaining processing is done in Photoshop and then off to my printer or my website.

[roscoetuff]

FWIW if you're still interested, I develop most of my B&W with D23 in a Jobo CPA2 - constant agitation. Easy. Fast. Done. Grain is more a factor of format than something that can be affected very much by the developer. Developers CAN have an impact, but that's solved mostly by using larger negative sizes.

[pflower]

I can't help with TMax - I never got on with it at all.  I briefly used TMax developer but got horrible and unprintable negatives from it and so gave up without trying to work out what was going wrong.   But I have used Ilford FP4 and HP5 since about 1975.  Originally I developed everything with D76 but later changed to Pyro developers.  These stain to a larger or lesser degree the negatives and  certainly were a huge improvement  when printing with cold light sources.  But having scanned my negatives - all 120 - I found that once one eliminates the colour of the stain in post processing the difference in quality was imperceptible.

You don't say what you are going to do with your negatives.  But if you are going to scan and print digitally then for the Ilford films D76 is tried and tested and gives good results.  I had a brief flirtation with HC-110 and Rodinal in various different dilutions (when I was still printing in the darkroom) but never liked the results.  I don't know what TMax looks like in D76 but the Ilford films respond well.  If you're going to go back to analog silver gelatine prints from an enlarger then a whole different kettle of fish opens up.  But for scanning I'd stick with D76.  It is pretty forgiving for time and temperature.

 

I've the itch to shoot B&W film again, since I last did so in the early 1990's! I have a few (recent) rolls of Ilford Delta 100 & 400 film plus boxes of Tmax 400 (35mm & 120). In the past I used D-76  or HC-110. However, I would like to pick one developer for both the Tmax and the Ilford films if possible. Eventually I will settle on Ilford film. I realize there may be issues of grain vs. sharpness depending upon the developer, but would appreciate suggestions from those currently developing film. Stop baths, fixers would be appropriate to the developer?

Suggestions would get me started again into what I once enjoyed.
thanks

aj