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

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Derek
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:06 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA
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Neopan 1600 ---> 3200 w/ Microdol-X

Post 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

tornredcarpet
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2005 1:46 pm

Post 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.

Derek
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:06 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA
Contact:

Post 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.

tornredcarpet
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2005 1:46 pm

Post 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.

allanw
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Dec 11, 2005 10:44 am

Not Worthless

Post 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.

Fotohuis
Posts: 141
Joined: Fri Sep 16, 2005 12:25 pm
Location: the Netherlands
Contact:

Post 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.
"De enige beperking in je fotografie ben je zelf"

http://www.FotohuisRoVo.nl
http://gallery.fotohuisrovo.nl/

tornredcarpet
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2005 1:46 pm

Re: Not Worthless

Post 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.

Keith Tapscott.
Posts: 551
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2006 8:58 am
Location: Plymouth, England.

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

Post 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.

Ornello
Posts: 882
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:49 am

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

Post 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.

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