Page 1 of 1

Neopan 1600 ---> 3200 w/ Microdol-X

Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 9:11 pm
by Derek
Hey guys.

I'm new to the forums, yeah whatever yatta yatta ya.

Okay, here's my deal.

I've got a couple of rolls of Neopan 1600 that I shot at 3200 with the intention of pushing. Now, I've never actually pushed film before (not on purpose, anyway), but I know how to do it. I've got myself a litre of MicrodolX freshly mixed and ready to go, and I planned on using it. So I get home and look up some development times and guess what? All the charts stop at 1600 for Microdol X and Neopan 1600. Is there some kind of cardinal sin to pushing with Microdol X? I know it's a "fine grain developer", according to the package, and I'm relatively new to the stuff, but I'm definitely down with fine grain. And yes, I understand that pushing to 3200 IS in fact going to make my film hella grainy. You know those old f/3,5 20mm Nikkors... just gotta love em.

I've got some D-76 in the PhotoFridge but I don't really want to use it because it's been sitting there for a few months and this is some pretty important film to me.

So can anyone help me out? Any experience with this combonation? Some dev times for 3200 maybe?

thanks.

-Derek

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 4:39 am
by tornredcarpet
It's not recommended to push with fine-grained developers, which tend to reduce speed.
If you do try to push, you're going to have a helluvalotta loss of shadow detail.

Sorry, but you do have to sacrifice speed for grain.
Maybe try XTOL for a compromise? Microdol is just not the right developer for the job.

Hope that helps.

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:54 am
by Derek
hey, thanks. I was thinking it had something to do with making it look horrible. I just ran a test with the old D-76 with just the first few inches of one of the rolls... 17 minutes at 20C and it's still slightly underdeveloped. I think I'll try 20 minutes, but I don't want to push it too far. The grain is less of an issue than it would usually be, though, since it's indie band concert photography and I guess it's supposed to look "raw" and "unpolished" or whatever.

Bring on the grain!

You know, I've never used XTOL. But I'll have to give that a try.

Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 10:55 am
by tornredcarpet
toss your old d-76. It's worthless.
Buy a 5L bag of XTOL. It's $9 at a store near you.
Also buy a 5 gallon paint mixing barrel, and enough lightproof (preferably the amber ones) jars to carry all of the XTOL.

Not Worthless

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 10:52 am
by allanw
D-76 is not only not worthless, it is still a very good developer for general use (plus, it does not have to be mixed 5L at a time). And in this case, for pushing Neopan 1600. But Neopan 1600 is not the best film to push. It really is not a very pushable film. Any of the other high speed B&W films will do a better job.

tornredcarpet wrote:toss your old d-76. It's worthless.
Buy a 5L bag of XTOL. It's $9 at a store near you.
Also buy a 5 gallon paint mixing barrel, and enough lightproof (preferably the amber ones) jars to carry all of the XTOL.

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 10:21 am
by Fotohuis
But Neopan 1600 is not the best film to push. It really is not a very pushable film. Any of the other high speed B&W films will do a better job.
I think you're right. Best preformance of Neopan 1600 is around E.I. 800-1000. SPUR SLD a a very good combination at iso 1000.
Rollei R3 can be do the same, iso 400-1600 AM74/R.H.S.

E.I. 1600-3200 can be done with Tmax3200 and Delta 3200.

Re: Not Worthless

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 4:00 pm
by tornredcarpet
allanw wrote:D-76 is not only not worthless, it is still a very good developer for general use (plus, it does not have to be mixed 5L at a time). And in this case, for pushing Neopan 1600. But Neopan 1600 is not the best film to push. It really is not a very pushable film. Any of the other high speed B&W films will do a better job.
It's useless because that particular batch of D-76 old, not because it's a tried and true formula.

Re: Neopan 1600 ---> 3200 w/ Microdol-X

Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 3:26 pm
by Keith Tapscott.
Derek wrote:Hey guys.

I'm new to the forums, yeah whatever yatta yatta ya.

Okay, here's my deal.

I've got a couple of rolls of Neopan 1600 that I shot at 3200 with the intention of pushing. Now, I've never actually pushed film before (not on purpose, anyway), but I know how to do it. I've got myself a litre of MicrodolX freshly mixed and ready to go, and I planned on using it. So I get home and look up some development times and guess what? All the charts stop at 1600 for Microdol X and Neopan 1600. Is there some kind of cardinal sin to pushing with Microdol X? I know it's a "fine grain developer", according to the package, and I'm relatively new to the stuff, but I'm definitely down with fine grain. And yes, I understand that pushing to 3200 IS in fact going to make my film hella grainy. You know those old f/3,5 20mm Nikkors... just gotta love em.

I've got some D-76 in the PhotoFridge but I don't really want to use it because it's been sitting there for a few months and this is some pretty important film to me.

So can anyone help me out? Any experience with this combonation? Some dev times for 3200 maybe?

thanks.

-Derek
Microdol-X is an extra finegrain developer and the finer grain is usually at some loss of emulsion speed yield. Although Neopan 1600 is usuable at 1600 ISO/ASA, it is an exposure indice and not an ISO value and will be at the expense of some loss of detail in the dark areas of the subject . The true speed yield of Neopan 1600 is close to around ISO 640 in a standard developer like D-76 and probably around half a stop less speed in Microdol-X.

Re: Neopan 1600 ---> 3200 w/ Microdol-X

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:51 am
by Ornello
Derek wrote:Hey guys.

I'm new to the forums, yeah whatever yatta yatta ya.

Okay, here's my deal.

I've got a couple of rolls of Neopan 1600 that I shot at 3200 with the intention of pushing. Now, I've never actually pushed film before (not on purpose, anyway), but I know how to do it. I've got myself a litre of MicrodolX freshly mixed and ready to go, and I planned on using it. So I get home and look up some development times and guess what? All the charts stop at 1600 for Microdol X and Neopan 1600. Is there some kind of cardinal sin to pushing with Microdol X? I know it's a "fine grain developer", according to the package, and I'm relatively new to the stuff, but I'm definitely down with fine grain. And yes, I understand that pushing to 3200 IS in fact going to make my film hella grainy. You know those old f/3,5 20mm Nikkors... just gotta love em.

I've got some D-76 in the PhotoFridge but I don't really want to use it because it's been sitting there for a few months and this is some pretty important film to me.

So can anyone help me out? Any experience with this combonation? Some dev times for 3200 maybe?

thanks.

-Derek
The true speed of this film is about 800, and Microdol-X would give only half of that at most.