400TX Developing Questions

Hey Everyone...

I'm a student out at NCSU in Raleigh, and I'm in a documentary
photography class...basically, I have some developling questions about
400TX 135. My instructor, who is a very..very...intelligent man, I
trust anything that comes out of his mouth told me to really only
shoot Tri-X at EI 200, since it's really only a 400 speed film 'in the
lab'. He spoke to contrast issues that I think I understand, but I
didn' 100% understand him.

Anyways, I went ahead and shot some 400TX at EI 200, and I'm ready to
develop. He told me to develop it at the 400 times..this is in D-76
1:1, or around 9.5 minutes. I'm just thinking this will give me really
thick negatives. Should I develop at the 400 time, since 400TX 'really
is' an ISO 200ish film, or should I run it in D-76 at the EI 200 time?
Or should I split the difference?

I also have access to XTOL (my favorite) and Microdol-X, which I'm
starting to use more of. I also have some normally exposed (EI 400)
that I'll run normally in the Microdol.

Basically, any sense you can make of anything is appreciated. Or just
TX developlment tips..going maybe beyond the 'eh, just put it in the
camera, shoot it, and run it in D-76!'.

Thanks so much.

--Adam Attarian

In article ,
(Adam Attarian) wrote:

Hey Everyone...

I'm a student out at NCSU in Raleigh, and I'm in a documentary
photography class...basically, I have some developling questions about
400TX 135. My instructor, who is a very..very...intelligent man, I
trust anything that comes out of his mouth told me to really only
shoot Tri-X at EI 200, since it's really only a 400 speed film 'in the
lab'. He spoke to contrast issues that I think I understand, but I
didn' 100% understand him.

Did he also teach how to meter properly? His rating might either be a
reasonable compromise or specifically tied to his particulate metering
habits. I'd follow his metering directions carefully, expose at 200 and
develop as recommended. If you don't like the outcome, then ask the
instructor.

If you go screwing around with developers before you master metering and
also have a consistent developing regime you won't get far.

BTW - opinion: forget Microdol-X. It's crap. Always was.

I think you'll find that nobody doesn't like d76. After all it's so commonly
used that no film manufacturer will ship a film that doesn't do well in d76.

If you want to try something different try Kodak's Tmax developer. Dilute 1:9
(one part concentrate to nine parts water) at 75 degrees with 9.5 minutes as
a starting point. My testing gives me a film speed of 400 but YMMV.

Frank

Adam Attarian wrote:
: Hey Everyone...

: I'm a student out at NCSU in Raleigh, and I'm in a documentary
: photography class...basically, I have some developling questions about
: 400TX 135. My instructor, who is a very..very...intelligent man, I
: trust anything that comes out of his mouth told me to really only
: shoot Tri-X at EI 200, since it's really only a 400 speed film 'in the
: lab'. He spoke to contrast issues that I think I understand, but I
: didn' 100% understand him.

: Anyways, I went ahead and shot some 400TX at EI 200, and I'm ready to
: develop. He told me to develop it at the 400 times..this is in D-76
: 1:1, or around 9.5 minutes. I'm just thinking this will give me really
: thick negatives. Should I develop at the 400 time, since 400TX 'really
: is' an ISO 200ish film, or should I run it in D-76 at the EI 200 time?
: Or should I split the difference?

: I also have access to XTOL (my favorite) and Microdol-X, which I'm
: starting to use more of. I also have some normally exposed (EI 400)
: that I'll run normally in the Microdol.

: Basically, any sense you can make of anything is appreciated. Or just
: TX developlment tips..going maybe beyond the 'eh, just put it in the
: camera, shoot it, and run it in D-76!'.

: Thanks so much.

: --Adam Attarian

--




Keep working millions on welfare depend on you
-------------------

jjs wrote:
: In article ,
: (Adam Attarian) wrote:

: Hey Everyone...
:
: I'm a student out at NCSU in Raleigh, and I'm in a documentary
: photography class...basically, I have some developling questions about
: 400TX 135. My instructor, who is a very..very...intelligent man, I
: trust anything that comes out of his mouth told me to really only
: shoot Tri-X at EI 200, since it's really only a 400 speed film 'in the
: lab'. He spoke to contrast issues that I think I understand, but I
: didn' 100% understand him.

: Did he also teach how to meter properly? His rating might either be a
: reasonable compromise or specifically tied to his particulate metering
: habits. I'd follow his metering directions carefully, expose at 200 and
: develop as recommended. If you don't like the outcome, then ask the
: instructor.

: If you go screwing around with developers before you master metering and
: also have a consistent developing regime you won't get far.

Very good advice. When running speed and development tests you always want to
use the same equipment (meters, enlargers, etc) when doing the testing as you
will will be using when making the exposures. This is especially true for
light meters and thermometers.
--




Keep working millions on welfare depend on you
-------------------

I'm a student out at NCSU in Raleigh, and I'm in a documentary
photography class...basically, I have some developling questions about
400TX 135. My instructor, who is a very..very...intelligent man, I
trust anything that comes out of his mouth told me to really only
shoot Tri-X at EI 200, since it's really only a 400 speed film 'in the
lab'. He spoke to contrast issues that I think I understand, but I
didn' 100% understand him.

Hi Adam,

Having done B&W photography at various stages in my life, and having
been consistently frustrated with the inconsistency of my results, I
have determined that I must use some kind of methodology for
objectively measuring of the effects of EI and development time on
negative density. I'm very much at the beginning of this learning
curve and defer to the folks on this list who know way, way more about
this topic than I do. But if this approach appeals to you, I will
share that I have found the following website very helpful in
understanding how to determine EI and development time for B&W film:
http://www.zone2tone.co.uk/. This site presents as simple and as clear
an approach as I've found (see http://www.zone2tone.co.uk/testingm.htm
specifically).

I am experimenting with measuring film density using a $25 print
exposure monitor. If you're interested in learning about that, see
this thread http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...photo.darkroom,
on which I plan to follow up soon.

Best of luck.

--Phil

"Phil Glaser" wrote

Having done B&W photography at various stages in my life, and having
been consistently frustrated with the inconsistency of my results, I
have determined that I must use some kind of methodology

FWIW: I too was lost in the wilderness. No matter what I did
and how I did it the results were inconsistent.

The problem turned out to be the tap water.

Things are now ho-hum: "Of course it comes out as expected, why
wouldn't it?"

Try a jug, 69 cents, cheap: it will either fix the problem
or rule out water quality as a cause.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/

Nick,

Are you talking about our wonderful Cleveland water? If so, I will be using
bottled water from now on. How about rince water?

Tom

--
There are only 10 kinds of people...Those that understand binary and
those that don't.
"Nicholas O. Lindan" wrote in message
k.net...
"Phil Glaser" wrote

Having done B&W photography at various stages in my life, and having
been consistently frustrated with the inconsistency of my results, I
have determined that I must use some kind of methodology

FWIW: I too was lost in the wilderness. No matter what I did
and how I did it the results were inconsistent.

The problem turned out to be the tap water.

Things are now ho-hum: "Of course it comes out as expected, why
wouldn't it?"

Try a jug, 69 cents, cheap: it will either fix the problem
or rule out water quality as a cause.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/

"Tom Gardner" wrote

Are you talking about our wonderful Cleveland water? If so, I will be using
bottled water from now on. How about rince [sic] water?

The water quality around here is just too variable: are the steel mills
running? what about in Detroit? has the bottom mud been stirred up by
wind and wave? what is the organic load? how are the zebra mussels doing?
does the water department have enough money to buy chemicals this month?

I use distilled water for developer stock solution, diluting stock film
developer to working strength and again in the final Photoflo rinse.

Distilled is _really_ needed around here when using homeopathic dilutions
of Rodinal. I couldn't get anything weaker than 1:25 to work at all
until going the distilled water route.

Richard Knoppow suggests, when making up developer stock, to boil the water
first to get rid of dissolved oxygen, cooling it to 100F and then slowly
(no air bubbles) stirring in the powder. If you go through stock soln.
slowly I am sure this is a good idea.

For each roll of '35mm film I use 16oz of distilled water -
9 cents worth - it is not an extravagance.

For paper processing I use tap water except for Dektol stock. Dektol
lasts longer if not made up with tap water.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/

Nicholas O. Lindan wrote:

Distilled is _really_ needed around here when using homeopathic dilutions
of Rodinal.

Very nice phrase...

Richard Knoppow suggests, when making up developer stock, to boil the water
first to get rid of dissolved oxygen, cooling it to 100F and then slowly
(no air bubbles) stirring in the powder. If you go through stock soln.
slowly I am sure this is a good idea.


Yes it must be... Stock solutions for what I use are at Rodinal-type
strength, except for paper and so I use distilled for this.

In article t,
Nicholas O. Lindan wrote:

I use distilled water for developer stock solution, diluting stock film
developer to working strength and again in the final Photoflo rinse.

I was able to get a used reverse osmosis water filter for free from someone
who found that the water produced was too costly and "too pure" for drinking.

For those that don't know, a reverse osmosis filter produces almost distilled
quality water from tap water. The down sides are that it has too much of the
minerals removed for drinking in large amounts and almost 90% of the water
that passes through it ends up down the drain.

Since I only use it for photographic solutions, I want the quality and I
don't care about "wasting" a few hundred liters a year of water, I just
dump it in my garden.

Geoff.
--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson