Fine grain/Contrasty film

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Looking for recommendations on a fine grain, higher contrast 135 film. Speed is unimportant as will be used with a tripod and will be enlarged to at least 8x10. Also if you could give development procedure it would be helpful. Thanks, Harold

-- Harold (uncle_buck69@hotmail.com), September 05, 1999

Answers

Here are some choices: Tech pan Agfa APX 25 Ilford Pan F Plus You can find the processing info on the massive B+W devl. chart Good luck

-- David Hou (dna2367@hotmail.com), September 06, 1999.

Tech pan is the clear winner in the grain wars. However for enlargement to 8x10's APX 25 or Ilford pan F will work fine. In fact for 8x10's, t-max 100 might fill the bill better than Pan F according to my testing. It just depends on what you mean by fine-grained. At 11x14 size (~11-12X enlargements), tech pan will start emerging from the others. Keep your negatives on the thin side to reduce grain.

To try the ultimate, get a couple of rolls of Tech Pan 2415 and a box of Technidol liquid developer. Shoot one roll at an E.I of 25 and develop as directed on the liquid technidol box (expecially the agitation routine), except I've not found the need to drop the film reel into the full tank as recommended. Evalute the results and then shoot the second roll. Enjoy!

-- Gene crumpler (nikonguy@worldnet.att.net), September 06, 1999.


Gene's right. Tech pan is incredibly fine grained. I've done 16x20's from 35mm and could barely see the grain, never mind the 120. The only thing trouble I've had was getting decent contrast with Technidol. I've gotten much better results by using Photographer's Formulary TD-3. This two part developer gives Tech-pan a full stop extra speed and allows you to vary the contrast through dilution. Give it a try.

-- Walter Massa (Massacam@aol.com), September 07, 1999.

Harold has a good point. Once you find you want to use tech pan, there are several alternatives to expensive and slow technidol. I've used Ethol TEC at an E.I. of 100 and am currently using diafine with an abbreviated development time in the "b" solution at 100. I've not tried the Photographers Formulary developers, but they also are much less expensive.

I suggest using technidol with the first couple of rolls as it is straight forward and should be in most camera stores that sell darkroom chemicals.

-- Gene Crumpler (nikonguy@worldnet.att.net), September 07, 1999.


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