Increasing Exposure Latitude in B&W 35mm film

[dfbldwn]

Damn! I forgot this one.

Scanned B&W film will not give quality equal to printing no matter how you process it.

I'm confident you're correct. I'd just like to point out that you haven't seen my enlargements. I have seen them, and intend to avoid that disappointment. Never again.

[Ornello]

Damn! I forgot this one.

Scanned B&W film will not give quality equal to printing no matter how you process it.

I'm confident you're correct. I'd just like to point out that you haven't seen my enlargements. I have seen them, and intend to avoid that disappointment. Never again.

A Durst 600 or 606 might be where to start. Use an El-Nikkor 50mm f/2.8 lens. It's the best for the money. There were two versions, the second of course is superior, but not by a huge margin.

This is the older one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-EL-Nikkor ... 1794013524

This is the newer one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-EL-Nikkor ... 1794013524

[Ornello]

Ornello:

How does d-23 compare with your old favorites from Crawley?

Jim M.

I thought you were the original poster. Sorry.

[Keith Tapscott.]

Barry Thorton was a fan of Ilford Perceptol which uses Metol as the only developing agent. When diluted 1+3, Perceptol will give the results that Ornello has already mentioned.
Err towards the generous side with film exposure with this developer.

[Ornello]

Barry Thorton was a fan of Ilford Perceptol which uses Metol as the only developing agent. When diluted 1+3, Perceptol will give the results that Ornello has already mentioned.
Err towards the generous side with film exposure with this developer.

Perceptol is similar to D23 in composition, I believe, as was the late Microdol-X.

See this thread:

http://www.apug.org/forums/archive/inde ... 64948.html

[Ornello]

Note that it's not possible to change the latitude of film. It is, however, possible to make negatives easier to print.

[Jim Appleyard]

You can use Rodinal, thousands of other photographer do. You can dilute it up to 1+300, but 1+50 to 1+100 are the most common. It can give you great negatives...if you know what you're doing.

You can also use a staining developer like Pyrocat HD or WD2D. Yes, the negs come out stained. This stain helps to control contrast when printing.

[Ornello]

You can use Rodinal, thousands of other photographer do. You can dilute it up to 1+300, but 1+50 to 1+100 are the most common. It can give you great negatives...if you know what you're doing.

You can also use a staining developer like Pyrocat HD or WD2D. Yes, the negs come out stained. This stain helps to control contrast when printing.

You can do anything you damned well please, but those methods will be inferior in many ways. Rodinal is not as sensitive to development by-products as are developers made using Metol; it also yields less speed while accentuating graininess. The question has been asked and answered, by me.

[dfbldwn]

The question has been asked and answered

Answered well
I did enjoy Keith's mention of Perceptol and his exposure recommendation, also Ornello's link to the Microdol X thread on apug.org

[Ornello]

Try this stuff:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... loper.html

[Keith Tapscott.]

Ethol T.E.C appears to be a developer of the Beutler type.

[Ornello]

Ethol T.E.C appears to be a developer of the Beutler type.

Perhaps, but since it is a proprietary formula I can't say. If you're willing to mix your own, I still think D-23 1:1 is hard to beat for control of highlights.

[Keith Tapscott.]

Another option of contrast control is to use two-bath development.

The Leitz two-bath developer as given in The Ilford Manual Of Photography (1958) is of similar composition to D-23.

Solution A;

Metol 5g

Sodium sulphite, anhydrous 100g

Water to make 1 litre.

Solution B;

Sodium sulphite, anhydrous 6g

Sodium carbonate, anhydrous 15g (use 18g for the monohydrate)

Water to make 1 litre.

Start with 4 minutes in solution A followed by 4 minutes in solution B.

I was never a big fan of two-bath devs for general use when I tried them quite a few years ago, but they certainly work well in controlling excessive contrast in tricky lighting conditions.

The Leitz formula above gave excellent acutance with FP4 when I used to use that developer.

[Ornello]

Most people don't understand how film works. The latitude and speed of the emulsion are largely determined in manufacture. Slow films are slow because the crystals are small, and each crystal is less likely to be struck by a photon because of that. It therefore takes more exposure (more photons) to get a negative of the proper density.

The crystals of slow fine-grain films are smaller and of a narrow size range.