[Leica] Xtol recomended dilutions

Dan Khong dankhong at gmail.com
Thu Jun 15 16:05:18 PDT 2017


Mark

Interesting! Did you roll them together in a stainless reel or in one of
those Paterson plastic ones?

Dan K.

On Friday, June 16, 2017, Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> wrote:

> Lluis I used to roll my film back to back two rolls in the same reel! And
> taught my assistants to do it. A few of them were incredulous.  I got this
> from a Bill Pierce column in Popular photography in the early 70’s it
> worked.
> But it makes Kodak’s recommendations as to limits of Xtol and puts them in
> the dust.
> I ran 8 rolls of 35mm film in a liter or quart of 1:3 Xtol.
> Then dumped it down the drain. My times where close to what they should
> have been.
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Mark William Rabiner
> Photographer
>
> On 6/15/17, 10:40 AM, "LUG on behalf of lluisripollphotography"
> <lug-bounces+mark=rabinergroup.com at leica-users.org <javascript:;> on
> behalf of lluisripollphotography at gmail.com <javascript:;>> wrote:
>
>     Mark,
>
>     Thank you for useful information, very interesting to learn it! You
> mention Delta 400, yes it is a great film, I’ve not use it after a while
> and just the past days I was in the darkroom enlarging, the pics with this
> one was very fine.
>
>     Your recomendation about testing dilution is also very interesting to
> follow.
>
>     Thank you
>     Lluis
>
>
>
>     > El 15 juny 2017, a les 14:25, Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com
> <javascript:;>> va escriure:
>     >
>     > If you Bing it or Google it for 15 minutes you’ll see the top,
> smart, nice, funny spiritual people are all at 1:3. The ones whose prints
> sold for the most money and who dressed better.
>     > Diluting Xtol 1:3 instead of 1:2 ads a couple of more minutes to it
> its way worth it. With that you get better edge caracteristics which is
> directly linked to higher dilution. And other advantages I was using 1:2
> for a while and my prints were obviously worse.
>     >
>     > By the way in my college in the early 70’s in St. Louis, we did us
> students who were always in the darkroom an unusual thing which I’d never
> heard of other places. We all ran our film in D76 1:2 instead of 1:1. The
> students who came in in the beginning of the year and ran the recommended
> 1:1 and universal default had prints you could spot across the room as
> being way less sharp. Way less edge. And way less sharp grain. But a tad
> less grain. And they were not very nice people who told bad jokes. It
> looked like they were shooting with Spiratone lenes.
>     > A good policy is to dilute until you hit a point when you’re seeing
> uneven development in your negs. Washed out areas. Then you back up a
> notch. But you’ll ahead of time see what everyone else is doing.
>     > Neopan Acros 100  Xtol 1:3 16’ minutes 70 degrees’ agitation every
> minute and the first full minute.
>     > All film listed here is 1:3 70 degrees F, agitation every minute 10
> seconds and the first full minute.
>     > Delta 100    14’
>     > Delta 3200  16’
>     > Delta 400     14’ Neopan 1600 RIP my main film when out and about
> shooting for myself. Even with a Noctilux.   12 minutes and looks like an
> iso 100 film. And here you are shooting it on the street. No tripod. I used
> it for on location commercial jobs no flash or tripod. The 100 with the
> studio strobes in the studio. Delta 100 from Ilford as just about as good.
>     > Neopan Acros 100 16 ‘ as high a rez film anyone would ever want or
> need in Xtol 1:3
>     > Get a tank so you can develop 8 rolls at a time or I can see your
> point and wanting to keep shorter times.
>     > You’ll shoot more with a big boy tank.
>     > Pan F 50, they still make it.  12’
>     > Tri X 400  11’
>     > Tri X Pro 320 in 120 or 220 format, 15’
>     > All the other times here is for 35mm format. Times are different for
> different formats why no one knows.
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     > --
>     >
>     > Mark William Rabiner
>     > Photographer
>     >
>     > On 6/15/17, 7:32 AM, "LUG on behalf of lluisripollphotography"
> <lug-bounces+mark=rabinergroup.com at leica-users.org <javascript:;> on
> behalf of lluisripollphotography at gmail.com <javascript:;>> wrote:
>     >
>     >    Chris, Dan
>     >
>     >    I will do 1+1 on my next two films, I want avoid long develping
> times. I’ve used HC110 many years ago, but I liked better ID11/D76
>     >
>     >    Cheers
>     >    Lluis
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     >> El 15 juny 2017, a les 11:49, Christopher Crawford <
> chris at chriscrawfordphoto.com <javascript:;>> va escriure:
>     >>
>     >> Its been years since I used Xtol. I never really liked the tonality
> as
>     >> much as D-76, though Xtol does give finer grain. I got best results
>     >> diluted 1+1.
>     >>
>     >> Be careful with higher dilutions. Kodak, when it first came out,
> listed
>     >> times for 1+2 and 1+3 dilutions. A lot of photographers got severely
>     >> underdeveloped negs with those dilutions, using Kodak’s times.
> Turns out,
>     >> Xtol cannot stand being diluted that much unless you develop the
> film in a
>     >> much larger tank than you normally need. I think there had to be
> 200ml of
>     >> stock in the diluted developer for each roll, so for 1+3
> developing, you
>     >> could do only one roll in a 32ox tank that could hold four rolls!
>     >>
>     >> Kodak published the minimum stock quantity needed but a lot of
> people
>     >> ignored it and complained, so they just stopped publishing the
> times for
>     >> the higher dilutions!
>     >>
>     >> I actually have a copy in PDF format of the original Xtol info
> booklet,
>     >> but the times would be off for Kodak films now since Kodak
> reformulated
>     >> Tri-X and the Tmax films since then. They did publish times for
> Ilford
>     >> films, which might still work if you’re interested in seeing it.
>     >>
>     >> --
>     >> Chris Crawford
>     >> Fine Art Photography
>     >> Fort Wayne, Indiana
>     >> 260-437-8990
>     >>
>     >> http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com  My portfolio
>     >>
>     >> http://www.facebook.com/pages/Christopher-Crawford/48229272798
>     >> Become a fan on Facebook
>     >>
>     >>
>     >>
>     >> On 6/15/17, 5:15 AM, "LUG on behalf of lluisripollphotography"
>     >> <lug-bounces+chris=chriscrawfordphoto.com at leica-users.org
> <javascript:;> on behalf of
>     >> lluisripollphotography at gmail.com <javascript:;>> wrote:
>     >>
>     >>> I don’t have a large experience with Xtol, I’ve used for years
> ID11/D76.
>     >>> I’ve developed my two last films of Bergger Pancro 400 in Xtol
> Stock at
>     >>> the recomended time, but I’m unhappy with the results. I’ve used
> it in
>     >>> stock to get the shortest developing time and minimize the grain
> effect.
>     >>>
>     >>> I would like hear your experiences with Xtol, I mainly use FP4 and
> HP5.
>     >>>
>     >>> Thanks in advance
>     >>>
>     >>> Lluis
>     >>>
>     >>>
>     >>>
>     >>> _______________________________________________
>     >>> Leica Users Group.
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> information
>     >>
>     >>
>     >>
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>     >
>     >
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