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#1
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Develper for Delta-100
After many years of using Tmax-100 I'm going to taking a look
at using Ilford's Delta-100. My question involves which developer works best with it. I've gone out and bought a bottle of ilfosol-s and a bottle of infotec dd-x. Anyone have any experience with either of these developers with Delta-100? I'm interested in dilutions and temperatures that give you the best results. -- Keep working millions on welfare depend on you ------------------- |
#2
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Develper for Delta-100
In article ,
Frank Pittel wrote: After many years of using Tmax-100 I'm going to taking a look at using Ilford's Delta-100. My question involves which developer works best with it. I've gone out and bought a bottle of ilfosol-s and a bottle of infotec dd-x. Anyone have any experience with either of these developers with Delta-100? I'm interested in dilutions and temperatures that give you the best results. Frank; Although I have not used both together, I have been using DDX with another 100 speed film recently, try 7 1/2 minutes @ 68F using a 1+9 dilution. Should give you a ballpark to work from. -- LF website http://members.bellatlantic.net/~gblank |
#3
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Develper for Delta-100
On Mon, 23 Feb 2004 17:47:43 -0600, Frank Pittel
wrote: After many years of using Tmax-100 I'm going to taking a look at using Ilford's Delta-100. My question involves which developer works best with it. I've gone out and bought a bottle of ilfosol-s and a bottle of infotec dd-x. Anyone have any experience with either of these developers with Delta-100? I'm interested in dilutions and temperatures that give you the best results. Most temperatures for b&W hang around 68 degrees, but, as the real world knows, frequently the developer isn't that temp. I mix my own chemistry, but do not usually try to many fancy / specialised developers. I do it more so that I can mix a litre of developer that is fresh when I get a chance to get to the darkroom. A young family limits my darkroom time to what it was in my past. Going at least 1:1 dilution with stock developer solutions at time of use gives you a way of getting close to a useful processing time that isnt too long or short. Measure the temperature of the undiluted developer stock solution. Then figure out how close that is to the ideal temperature- 68, or whatever it is for that developer. Then make the mixed in water that different in the opposite direction. If your local water from the tap after filtering is still to gunky for direct use with developers there is still a way to do this with distilled. Keep 2 jugs of distilled water - one at room temperature or beside the radiator, etc. Keep the other one in the fridge. Then almost temperature can be mixed up.. If you end up with too mush distilled mixed, then just pour the excess back into the water jug. The easiest trick is to hunt down a little dial calculator gizmo that Kodak (maybe used to) sell as a part of thier darkroom data guide. Other vendors likely made them as well. It gives time vs. temperature relative to an developer number index that you dial in on the opposite edge of the dial. The power of this calculator is that it allows you to easily adjust development times to ideally suit your process. I have a condenser enlarger - Kodak say develop using 3 development numbers less on thier dial than thier published standard data to compensate for higher contrast for this enlarger characteristics. So that little gem got me closer to a full black to white print process. Then I found Fred's Pickers little book, six years after starting B&W hobbying The ideas discussed below come out of a little book by Fred Picker,called Zone VI Workshop circa 1974 that I found used many years ago. These ideas take a while to explain. Take the time to read it, and also try to make the time to run your own tests. They wil give you huge control over the process. So much control that I cannot imagine using a C-41 based B&W film, regardless of how convenient thay look at first blush. I am not a huge Zone System fanatic -but I do not want all grey all the time either out of my prints. So I do a one day calibration prceedure with each new film/developer combination I get into. I know it takes about a day, but the results pay dividends for years. Keep reading - it will be worth it to you too. It goes on - a bit like a mini-book now that I look it over with a spot of editting. But the original book the information came to me in I suspect is a very hahrd find these days. A light meter- either the handheld or through the lens reading types, reads everything and wants to make it like a grey card. So metering a grey card (or any flat evenly lit blank card surface) places it at ZV as I recall.. Zones in Fred's world got from 0 to 8 in roman numerals, I recall. I am typing this at work, so exact details of the book, at home are not at hand With the image of the test/grey card filling the frame, with it lit the same way it was metered, stop down 5 stops (via aperture, preferably, or a combination of aperture and shutter speed) making an exposure at each stop along the way. Go past zone zero a couple of shots as well. This can be done on the end of any film that your are shooting right now. Develop per film/developer manufacturers recommended times, The test shots will be minimally impacted, since thin areas on the negative we are trying to create by stopping down below the recommended meter reading are not very influenced by the precise developer action. Once the test film segment is dry, look carefully somewhere along the test shots part of the negative.. You will find a spot where there is just the slightest negative density in the exposure above the film base plus developer fog found in the un-exposed sprocket areas and between frames areas of the film (or film edges if it 35mm you are doing this on) . This exposure puts you at Z0 - as black a print as can be printed, by making the negative as thin as it can be before we wander into the film base plus fog density of the film. It might be found 5 frames from the first zone 5 (shot at the aperture and exposure setting as recommended by the meter). If it is then the film in your camera, and with you meter, lens, and shutter combination matches the film speed that the manufacturer rates thier film If it does not, figure out how far you get. If it is only four frames, and you start with a manufacturer rated 400 asa film, then in your set up, it is really working best to expose it at 200 asa. Take the negative of the first test exposure above film base plus fog, and put it in your enlarger. Set your enlarger to an aperture that is typical to what you print at, and an image size that is comfortable. Use a middle grade of photographic paper, (either by grade, or with the correct polycontrast filter/dichroic head setting). Set the timer to 3 seconds. Cover most of the enlarging paper with a covering card so that only about 1" is exposed. Expose it for 3s. Move the card to expose another 1" of the paper, as well as the first strip of paper that got exposed. Continure until the paper is all uncovered. Keep notes of how many strips you exposed, and accordingly, the longest time. Develop the paper for as long as the manufacture recommends. Don't pull it as soon as the first band of black appears. Once the print is fixed, washed, and dried, figure out the minumum exposure time it took to get to the maximum black on the print. This time will be the same time that we aim to get in the next part of the test to replicate for a white range test. Make note of the enlarger height, enlarger aperture and paper type if you can't finish the test until later If you are in a multi-enlarger facility, try to get back to the same unit, to rule out different light output due to varying lamp age. Now we are going to try to figure out how to process a roll of film so that the whites areas recorded on the film print up for the same exposure time in the darkrom as the darkest blacks. Because we are dealing with negatives, that means how dense do we want the developer to advance the portions of the film that we exposed to turn out prints as white in the finished product. It helps in the next part to expose three films to the same test conditions at the same shooting period. If not, then separate sessions can be done, but the results are not as quick to achieve. An alternate way is to shoot a film, three times, on 18, 9-17, and 18-24 , and develop 1-8 exposures separately from 9-17, from 18-24, however, cutting a film in this manner forces you to try to cut at the right place in the dark, and there are a lot of ways that things can go wrong along the way. Meter a test area/grey card again. Again, fill the frame of the camera. This time we are openning the aperture up, to expose the film more, to allow more density to be developed into the negative. With the image of the test are or grey card filling the frame, with it lit the same way it was metered, open up 3 stops (via aperture, preferably, or a combination of aperture and shutter speed) making an exposure at each stop along the way. Go past zone eight a couple of shots as well. This time we first develop according to manufacturers procesing time/temperature. Dry negatives, etc. Look for the one exposure that is the last one before no density changes are visible one exposure to the next. It should be the fourth one after the first zone 5 metered recommended exposure of the test area/grey card. It may not be; there may be films avaibale that can cover more than 8 stops of exposure latitude, but in my experinece I have yet to find them. Put the negative that is the one before staturation is encountered into the enlarger in the same set- up as was used previously to determinum maximum black time. This time expose the photographic paper in the same way, with a card being progressively removed. at 3 second exposure intervals. Develop, fix, wash and dry it. Then evaluate which time gives the slightest grey that is separate from the subsequent all white area. Figure out how much exposure time that this took. If it is the same time as the previous maximum black test right of the bat than you got very lucky the first time out. More likely it is either less time than the maximum black print exposure time or it is more. If it is less time, then there is not enough density being developed into the negative by the developer under evaluation. In this case we need to develop more. This is best done by as a first try developing the second test roll for 25% longer than the recommended development time. Repeat the printing susequent exposure strips process to see when the first grey in the test print is found. If it is after the time for maximum black, then we have compensated too much, and must refine the third roll test time to some time less than a 25% increase over the manufacturers recommended time. This time through the results ,when run and evaluated for the time to minumum grey over ful papper white should match closely to the maximum black exposure time, or you will know what future rols should be processed at to gte that result. Make a careful note of the time. or develoipment index number, if you have a dial calculator. Using this time you are now in control of how thing look in your finished print at the time that you take a picture using black and white film. If the first test roll print results in minumum grey with more time required than to get to maximum black, then we have over developed the film for our circumstances. For the second roll development try the manufacturese recommended time less 25%. Then you can refine in a manner described above. Mike Wilde. |
#4
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Develper for Delta-100
In article ,
Mike Wilde wrote: Most temperatures for b&W hang around 68 degrees, but, as the real world knows, frequently the developer isn't that temp. Why & why not? -- LF website http://members.bellatlantic.net/~gblank |
#5
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Develper for Delta-100
On Tue, 24 Feb 2004 18:57:22 GMT, Gregory W Blank
wrote: In article , Mike Wilde wrote: Most temperatures for b&W hang around 68 degrees, but, as the real world knows, frequently the developer isn't that temp. Why & why not? In my darkroom in the winter the basement goes down to 62 overnight, before the furnace kicks back up in the morning. I also do not have a hot air duct directly from the furnace to try to keep dust infiltration down. It takes until noon for the stock solutions to get up to 68, if I do not have the exhaust fan running to pull warmer air in from the rest of the house. . In the summer , when the air conditioning is on it is no problem to be as cold as the wintertime in the basement if one of my little ones leaves the door at the top of the basement stairs open all day while I am away at work. 68 has evolved into the reference standard for working at for a small tank for times detwen 5 and 10 minutes as manufacturers plan thier commercial formulations. When solutions get warmer it can be a real quick dunk in the developer soup. To get repeatable results when pouring into and out of a daylight tank as well as knock all air bubbles off and agitate once or twice when the total developing time is something like 3:30 is difficult. At the other end, trying to stay excited to agitate regularly when the time slides out past 12 minutes whe the developer is cold is a bit of a dull chore - hence the drive towards 68 degrees. Withe a dial calculator it is easy to see what the recommended time maps to for temperatures away from the reference time at 68. |
#6
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Develper for Delta-100
In article ,
Mike Wilde wrote: On Tue, 24 Feb 2004 18:57:22 GMT, Gregory W Blank wrote: In article , Mike Wilde wrote: Most temperatures for b&W hang around 68 degrees, but, as the real world knows, frequently the developer isn't that temp. Why & why not? In my darkroom in the winter the basement goes down to 62 overnight, before the furnace kicks back up in the morning. I also do not have a hot air duct directly from the furnace to try to keep dust infiltration down. It takes until noon for the stock solutions to get up to 68, if I do not have the exhaust fan running to pull warmer air in from the rest of the house. . Most people regulate the temp by using something like an aquarium heater, in a tub of water. That is even if the desired temp is 68F. I personally have a tempered water regulator mounted permanently on my darkroom tap, although you can get a faucet mounting thermometer that allows the water to pass through it this being removable each time after use. When you mix the stock solution, with the desired amount of water for working dilution use tempered water, that way there is no waiting. Because I have a Jobo I turn every thing on and it takes 3/4 hour to come up to temp in winter, usually in summer its at temp or I run cool water to get it below temp,...so it then comes up. You can also do this using a tub and aquarium heater. As for agitation get a book or something to do while tending the tank, a small rotary base can probably be found at a reasonable price. A small radio or CD player makes the time more enjoyable. -- LF website http://members.bellatlantic.net/~gblank |
#7
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Develper for Delta-100
I get good results with DDX at 1+4 20 deg C 12 minutes four inversions every
minute with four to start when dev added to tank. Works for me but try it yourself on a test roll. regards Malcolm "Frank Pittel" wrote in message ... After many years of using Tmax-100 I'm going to taking a look at using Ilford's Delta-100. My question involves which developer works best with it. I've gone out and bought a bottle of ilfosol-s and a bottle of infotec dd-x. Anyone have any experience with either of these developers with Delta-100? I'm interested in dilutions and temperatures that give you the best results. -- Keep working millions on welfare depend on you ------------------- |
#8
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Develper for Delta-100
I get nice results using Ilford ID11 1 to1 @ 68 degrees 10.5 min on a Jobo
CPA with a pre rinse. I use water for a stop bath to eliminate pinholes in the emulsion. "Malcolm Smith" wrote in message ... I get good results with DDX at 1+4 20 deg C 12 minutes four inversions every minute with four to start when dev added to tank. Works for me but try it yourself on a test roll. regards Malcolm "Frank Pittel" wrote in message ... After many years of using Tmax-100 I'm going to taking a look at using Ilford's Delta-100. My question involves which developer works best with it. I've gone out and bought a bottle of ilfosol-s and a bottle of infotec dd-x. Anyone have any experience with either of these developers with Delta-100? I'm interested in dilutions and temperatures that give you the best results. -- Keep working millions on welfare depend on you ------------------- |
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