Re: [Leica] B&W Film

[Jiri_Dvorak@idx.com]

>Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 23:46:52 -0400
>From: "Roy Feldman" <royfel@hotmail.com>
>Subject: [Leica] B&W Film

>Could one of you regulars give me a thumb nail sketch on HP, Delta and
TMAX
>in XTOL.

Roy,

I've shot a lot of rolls of HP5+ and last couple of years developed in XTOL
1:1 and it is a really nice combination. HP5+ is easy to work with and has
somehow softer look and less grain then Tri-X. You can easily make nice
16x20 (inch) prints from HP5+. As far as shadow detail goes, you just have
to do some testing for your combination of camera and meter.

Currently, I'm in a process of shooting and evaluating Delta 400. Again
developed in XTOL 1+1. Just started to print some of my photos from my
recent trip to Italy on 11x14 (inch) FB paper and I'm really impressed with
the low grain and sharpness of D400. But one has to be more careful
exposing and processing this film (well less than TMax, anyway). If your
film processing is done by a lab, you might be better off with HP5+.

However, I'm still undecided if Delta will replace HP5+ for me, for while
it is a nice film it is seems too "perfect" for me. Especially with the
35/2A (hey, this is the reason I started to experiment with D400 in the
first place and now I complain about the perfection :->). But I haven't
really printed enough prints from D400 to decide yet...

Hope this helps.

Jiri D.