In a previous discussion, "DDX or Xtol with Delta 3200 (Jim W Vanson)", several folks expressed an interest in gathering development information for Ilford Delta 3200 in various developers. Post your favorite developer, dilution, time, temperature, agitation technique, and any other pertinent information here. I will copy the information to my website at: http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/D3200/d3200.html. I have some useful information from John Hicks posted already.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), April 24, 2000

Answers

I haven't got too much experience with this film, but made good experience with EI 1600, dev. 10 minutes in Ilfotec HC 1+31. Ilford's data sheet says 9 minutes, but I found the negative contrast a bit too small. However, this adjustment is within the margin for individual processing as stated in many data sheets.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), April 25, 2000.

Thomas: what temperature did you use?

-- (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), April 25, 2000.

EI 3200: Xtol 1+1, 18min., 75c, Kodak standard agitation

-- Paul Harris (pharris@neosoft.com), April 25, 2000.

Oops, I forgot: The standard temperature (which I used) is 20 0C. I will send you Ilford's data sheet as a pdf file. There is information on a fair number of developers, although I did not personally test it.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), April 26, 2000.

20 mins @75f @12.5k in DDX full-strength and I agit 3 times start, middle, end for 1 min...I don't think it helps though...just old habits dying hard.

I'm gonna try John's microphen/sulfite recipe and SLIMT'ing soon, I'll post any findings here.

thanks again Ed, John, Thomas and all...

-- Trib (linhof6@hotmail.com), April 26, 2000.

oops - a couple of postings back - 75F not 75C :0

-- Paul Harris (pharris@neosoft.com), April 26, 2000.

I now have processing recommendations from five different photographers, ranging from an EI of 800 to 12,500. Thanks to everyone who shared their information!

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), April 27, 2000.

Try Delta 3200 at an EI of 1600 with semi-stand development for 30 minutes in Pyrocat-HD at 70 degrees. This produces extremely high acutance and startling edge effects. Agitate for 30 seconds at the beginning of the development, and again for 30 seconds in the middle. I've updated my page at http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/D3200/d3200.html with this information.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), August 06, 2000.

Sounds neat, Ed. Can you post an image showing the edge effects?

-- fw (finneganswake@altavista.net), August 07, 2000.

I guess I need to retract the claim of edge effects until I can prove it. I am unable to image the negative at a high enough resolution to determine if there are true edge effects, and I can't reproduce the apparent sharpness of the print on the computer monitor (at 72 dpi). But let me say that the negatives LOOK much sharper than my PMK negatives, and they PRINT with more apparent sharpness as well. Part of the effect is due to the size of the grain in medium format Delta 3200. The grain structure provides very high acutance when developed in Pyrocat-HD, much like Tri-X in Rodinal.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), August 07, 2000.