Acutol & Neofin Red

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I just bought a bottle of Acutol & another of Neofin Red; I wonder if anybody had experienced with any of them. I know that Acutol is an acutance developer but any suggestions regarding the EI? How to get the gest out of it, and how do you comment on its tonality? And what about Neofin Red?

Thanks

-- Xosni (xosni@gega.net), August 19, 2001

Answers

Many years ago i did an extended project using FP4 and Acutol. I think I rated the film about ASA 200 and I developed the film for somewhat longer than specified to get a meaty negative. The results were superb in both sharpness and tonality. njb

-- Nacio Jan Brown (njb@MyBerkeleyHome.com), August 19, 2001.

I've tried Acutol. It's a nice developer. Got the full film speed.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), August 19, 2001.

Thanks Nacio,

But how do you describe its tonality? For example, I noticed that acutance developers (FX-1 & Rodinal) reder a narrow midtone separaration esp. when using direct flash lighting. I guess that Acutol is the same more or less, isn't it?

-- Xosni (xosni@gega.net), August 20, 2001.


First I cannot agree at all that Rodinal compresses midtone tonality, just the contrary. Acutol is a proprietary formulation by Geoff Crawley for Paterson improving FX2. Neofin Red is a more active high acutance developer by Tetenal, more active in comparison than Neofin Blue, which is based on the Beutler formulation. As with all high accutance developers you will lose highligh separation, not midtone separation. They usually build up shadow contrast nicely, which gives a nice speed rating. They are no fine grain developers, since the amount of sodium sulfite is very low. Neofin Red is formulated for higher speed film (ISO 200 and up) which would not get enough contrast with Neofin Blue, which is formulated for lower speed films. I have used Neofin and the acutance is impressive, although I now much more favor the incredible tonality of R09 (classic Rodinal) which comes in combination with very high acutance.

-- Volker Schier (Volker.Schier@fen-net.de), August 28, 2001.

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