Re: [Leica] Film speed (WAS London travel report)

[Christer Almqvist <chris@almqvist.net>]

(After lots of snips):

>  Film was Tri-X and HP-5.
>
>I rated the film at EI 320, and used an incident meter to measure open
>shadow.  I base exposure on that, then underdevelop.
>
>I'm going to try Fujipan 1600 at EI 800 for interior stuff and see how
>that faires in XTOL at 70% of the recommended time.  And for this
>summer, I'm going to try Delta 100 @ EI 50 or EI 80 with yellow filter for
>some more sky detail.

>
For a change, try to shoot the Tri-X, the HP-5 and the Delta 100 at twice
the nominal speed rating. (Use the development times from the Xtol web
page.) I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the results. Here are a
few snips from 'The Film Development Cookbook' to  help convince you:

......slow film almost always produces better image quality than a fast
film, even when the slow film's speed is increased in a speed enhancing
developer,

 .....'expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights'. This does not
work as well as it used to do, because with modern film, you cannot change
the way highlights develop without changing the way the shadows develop.

 .....speed increasing developers FX15 and XTOL. These developers are used
for a true speed increase, not for pushing.

....best pushability comes from newly formulated developers such as XTOL
when used at greater than normal dilutions.  (I have found 1+1 to work well
for when exposing at higher than nominal film speed, giving sharp
negataives, little grain and nice tonality)

Hälsningar!

- --
christer almqvist
eichenstrasse 57, d-20255 hamburg, fon +49-40-407111 fax +49-40-4908440
14 rue de la hauteur, f-50590 regnéville-sur-mer, fon+fax +33-233 45 35 58