I had many troubles with Agfa APX 100 when I have tried D-76. It seems to lose film speed. Rodinal gives too grainy negatives. Maybe Emofin can be the solution? Has anyone here used this developer? I've heard that it's compensating and gives normal /low contrast and an increse in film speed.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), June 15, 2000

Answers

Sorry Patric, I've only developed 2-3 rolls of APX 100 in 135 size and they turned out fine in Xtol 1:1. I heard good things about Emofin for pushing but have not tested it, priced around 10 Euro for only 12-15 films seems pricey. Ultrafin Plus is 16 Euro for 50-60 films.

Doesn't give D 76 1:1 a slight increase in filmspeed?

Wolfram

-- Wolfram Kollig (kollig@ipfdd.de), June 16, 2000.

X-tol? I've heard that X-tol is the worst developer one can use for APX 100. I read that on a norwegian site. Yes, Emofin is expensive. Rodinal on the other hand must be the cheapest developer I have ever used. Especially as one can dilute it 1+50 or 1+100. But as I said, Rodinal gives grainy (but very sharp) grain.

I think I will try Emofin as it balances the contrast.

APX 100 in D-76 was a disaster for me. Burned highlights, strange mid- tones and bad details in the darker tones. I guess one have to expose after 50 Asa instead, and then it loses the point as I want a 100 film. Now I use Plus-X, but I like the skin-tones I get with Agfas films.

When I use APX 25 I use to expose at 12 Asa and develop in Rodinal. Very sharp result and no visible grain.

By the way: I use 120-film.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), June 16, 2000.

>Doesn't give D 76 1:1 a slight increase in filmspeed?

Maybe, and that was the dilution I used. But I've found that I should have exposed the film after at least 64 Asa.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), June 16, 2000.

I did use Emofin a couple of years ago, though not with that film. Yes, it did increase film speed by up to one f-stop, and yes, it had quite a pronounced compensating effect. The negatives had normal to fine grain. Emofin is indeed quite a user-friendly developer in that you can get away with a couple of mistakes which would surely ruin your film had you used a one-bath developer.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), June 16, 2000.

I have used Emofin and APX100 for a couple of years. Emofin gives finer grain than Rodinal, but Rodinal gives sharper or at least crisper negatives (my opinion). And, yes, the film speed is about one to two stops higher with Emofin WITHOUT push processing. I think Emofin is an ideal developer for high contrast subjects. My development times for APX and normal contrast: 6 min for each of the two steps, 5 sec agition per minute.

-- Thies Meincke (meincke@rrz.uni-hamburg.de), June 19, 2000.