Response to Delta 400 vs HP5+

I've been using Delta 400 for weddings and portraiture. I rate it between 250 and 3200. I had terribly grainy results with Rodinol and Xtol. I've been over-developing in Ilford HC with great defined, sharp, wonderfully lit, "smooth" results. Very fine grained at 3200- blows true 3200 away, exellent tonal range! It's just amazing to use fill flash only and get details in the background of a dim church. My aperatures are tiny-which helps in the background light department- (I rate at 1600 in camera and develop at 1:15 dillution, 68 degrees, 13 minutes for true 1600, 18 minutes for 3200 or more. (I aways agitate 5 times per minute after 1st 30 second agitation or I get bad results) Even pictures that come out underexposed can be corrected in photoshop with curves. The tonal range is so good that I'm finding I get better negs out of fine-grained developer Ilford HC with not bad contrast at all. I've been wanting to try HP5+ wondering if I could push it like the Delta. I tried pushing it's counterpart FP4+ to 400 with very bad results in shadow areas. It did great pushed in well lit areas. Much better grain than Delta rated at 400, but bad for dim lit scenes. - Heidi of Arc

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