I don't mind the grain, but...

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I don't mind grain if my prints are sharp. Does anyone have some personal favourites for film/developer combinations. Both fast and slow films are of interest to me.

Thanks in advance, Michael.

-- Michael Haas (incept@the-wire.com), June 19, 2000

Answers

I have used split bath developers for some time (Divided D76 and Diafine) with the older emulsions. Diafine is a higher acutance version but they both are great on Agfa APX 25asa, Ilford Pan F, FP4+ ect. ect. As for grain, both of the developers are fine grain... even with Tri X and HP5+! Cheers, Scott

-- Scott Walton (scotlynn@shore.net), June 19, 2000.

Try the pyro developers, PMK,Pryocat,SD-1,ABC is very good. Pat

-- pat krentz (patwandakrentz@aol.com), June 19, 2000.

Rodinol, Rodinol, Rodinal. 1+50.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), June 19, 2000.

Kodak Technical Pan at EI 25, Rodinal 1:200 at 24 deg C for 8 minutes. Absolutely fantastic.

Agfa APX-25 at EI 25, Rodinal 1:50 at 20 deg C for 10 mins.

Ilford Pan-F+ at EI 50, D76 1:1, times as in the MBWDC here: http://www.digitaltruth.com/

-- Sriram (r_sriram@ziplip.com), June 19, 2000.


Pick up a copy of "The Film Developing Cookbook" Probably more info than you really want, but it WILL explain the tradeoffs between grain and sharpness, and tell you how to go about getting what you want.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), June 20, 2000.


I second the recommendation for "The Film Developing Cookbook," and also for PMK. My photography has improved tremendously since getting the Anchell-Troop book. And PMK is one incredibly sharp developer. After using it for a while, I went back to print some old negatives developed in XTOL 1:3. At that dillution, XTOL is touted to be a non-solvent, sharp developer, but PMK just blows it away. The results don't even look like I used the same camera.

-- Brian Hinther (BrianH@sd314.k12.id.us), June 21, 2000.

Agfapan 25, developed in Rodinal 1:50.

I just bought some PMK but I haven't used it yet.

-- Jim MacKenzie (photojim@yahoo.com), June 23, 2000.


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