I mistakenly exposed some sheets of Fuji Neopan 400 at ISO80 at the weekend (I thought I was using TMAx100 at the time). I was thinking of developing by using a very dilute solution of Rodinal, maybe 1:150, for about 15 minutes - the idea being to use a highly compensating developer to prevent the highlights burning out. Any better suggestions of how I should develop a film that has been pulled 2 1/3 stops?

-- David Hedley (djhedley@yahoo.com), April 03, 2000

Answers

Deveop by inspection, as God intended.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), April 03, 2000.

David, where are you getting your Fuji sheets (I'm assuming 4x5)?

-- John Welton (jwelton2@home.com), April 05, 2000.

John, yes these were 4x5 sheets - I also posted this on photo.net, to which I did add this follow up ;

Well, here's what I did ; I developed for 14.5 minutes in 1:200 Rodinal, agitating constantly for the first minute, and then every three minutes thereafter (as suggested in "The Negative" for highly dilute development). I have ended up with a thin, very low contrast negative - I think that I should have followed a more normal agitation procedure, as the reduction in contrast was effectively doubled through the low dilution and the reduced agitation. (As I was using a combi tank, where there is a high volume of liquid, I thought that this problem would be minimised). I will now try to intensify the negative with a mixture of selenium toner and hypo clearing agent.

I would certainly be interested in any ideas about how I could have got better development (and whether my ideas about the compensating effect are correct or not), and whether the selenium/hyp clear intensifier recommended in "The Negative" will help. At least the TMax and Velvia came out well. Regards

-- David Hedley (djhedley@yahoo.com), April 05, 2000.

John ; sorry, I should have read your response more carefully. This film is available off the shelf in Japan, together with various other Fuji 4x5 black and white emulsions. The 100 Neopan is really good - close to TMax100 in quality. When exposed and developed properly (!), the 400 emulsion is also good, and probably better than TMY or Delta. The data sheets are only in Japanese, and unfortunately omit any reference to reciprocity factors.

-- David Hedley (djhedley@yahoo.com), April 05, 2000.