I'm thinking about doing my own darkroom work for Ilford Delta 3200 (just started shooting with it). Are there any members of the panel who have experience with this film and the proper technique for developing it? I chose the Ilford over Kodak Tmax 3200 for its reputed finer grain for a super-speed film. Any special considerations/tweaks in the darkroom that I should be aware of?

Thanks,

-- John Chan (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), January 29, 2002

Answers

I rate Delta 3200 at 3200. Develop in Xtol 1:1. Process in my Jobo for 9.5 min. at 80F. I don't know if the grain is any finer than TMZ 3200, but the ilford is less likely to block up in the highlights.

I do a lot of club shooting with it. Hope this helps. Steve

-- Steve Belden (otterpond@tds.net), January 29, 2002.

I rate D3200 at 800 and process it in XTOL 1+1 from 9 to 12 min depending on the brightness range of original scene. 20 deg. Celc., intermittent agitation. If the scene was contrasty enough, the 9 min of developing gives negative that can be printed on grade #2; there is no visible grain on 8x10" print in this case. -- Of course it is very approximate description.

I used Kodak 3200 in the past (also souped in XTOL 1+1) and found it is more grainy than the Delta. Also Kodak has longer toe on the charact. curve; it means the Delta has better contrast in shadows.

Delta 3200 is my favorite among fast films.

Good luck

-- Andrey Vorobyov (AndreyVorobyov@mail.ru), January 29, 2002.

I shoot D3200 at 1600, and have my lab process it for 3200.

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), January 29, 2002.

Steve, I am also a firm proponent of the KISS mantra (Keep it simple stupid). I'll probably end up following a protocol similar to yours. What kind of contrast and gradation do you get with the film when you develop your club shots? I'm thinking about doing the same thing in local jazz clubs. If possible, could you post and example?

Thanks,

John.

-- John (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), January 29, 2002.

Just for the record, I've been getting good results with T-Max 3200 @ ISO 3200 in T-Max developer, 11.5 minutes @ 70F.

-- Peter Hughes (ravenart@pacbell.net), January 29, 2002.

My most common method:

Expose at 3200 (incident metering), develop in Xtol 1:2 at 80 deg. F for 20 minutes (Paterson reels and tanks). The negs usually print with a grade 2 or 2.5 filter on a condenser enlarger.

For EI 1600, I reduce development time to 17 minutes; for 6400, increase time to 25 minutes.

As noted above, there doesn't seem to be a big difference in the size of the grain between Delta and P3200 (though I think Delta's grain is sharper), but the Ilford film has a more pronounced shoulder so it doesn't block up the highlights very easily. As long as you give it plenty of development, the Delta 3200 is hard to screw up.

Shot below is cropped to about 50% of the image area (EI 3200) and printed with about a grade 3.5 filter:

-- Mike Dixon (mike@mikedixonphotography.com), January 29, 2002.

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=007Tdh

-- Josh Root (rootj@att.net), January 29, 2002.

I'd suggest settling on EI 1600 if you can. The "real" speed is about EI 1250 in most speed-enhancing developers, so EI 1600-2000 is a minimal push. Of course Delta will go EI 3200 and higher but the grain penalty gets pretty severe.

Use Microphen, DD-X or Xtol (diluted). Metol-based developers will drop the "real" speed to EI 800 or even lower; at that rate you'd be much better off pushing HP5+ or Delta 400.

-- John Hicks (jhicks31@bellsouth.net), January 29, 2002.

I've gotten my best results with Delta 3200 when it was exposed at 1600 and developed in Xtol straight. This gives acceptable shadow detail, but more grain that I like. Would development in Xtol 1:1 result in less intrusive grain?

-- Jack Matlock (jfmatlo@attglobal.net), January 29, 2002.

Jack, no, I don't think so. XTOL is a solvent developer,meaning that, like D-76, D-23, and many others, it dissolves some of the grain surface to achieve finer grain. There is a slight sacrifice is shadow speed. When you dilute 1:1 (or any dilution) the solvent gets diluted, which means you get a little more grain--but also a higher film speed.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), January 29, 2002.

I'll have to absorb all this and think about it.

Thanks,

-- John (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), January 29, 2002.