[Leica] Recommendations for film and developing

[Lluis Ripoll]

Hi Howard,

I have started to develop myself the films because I’ve not found any proffessional lab that they develop with the results I wanted as I had some years ago before than my usual lab went out of business. The first thig I have encountered is that im my opinion the  films quality is not the same as it was in the past, neither the water (at least in Barcelona), for thi reason I do all the process with distilled water except ten minuntes rinse after the develping, but after this I replenishes the tank 2 times with distilled water agitating it during 4 or 5 minutes, after these two baths I put the film on distilled water with Ilford Mirasol for 1,5/2 min. and my films are totally clean, no traces of points forming white spots.

My developing procedure is the usual, I presoak for about 2 min. the film in plain water at similar temperature the developer, I agitate 30” and I do two inversions  every 30”. Note that 15 years before I agitate the first minute and 5” every 30”….

I have tested several films: Eastmann Double X 5222 ISO250, Orwo 54 and 74, Bergger, Fomapan, Argenti, Agfa (actual), Adox Silvermax 100 and as I have discussed with Nathan finally I keep using Ilford FP4 and HP5, ocasionally Delta 3200 and Adox Silvermax 100, very rich in Silver content, I obtained the best results on this one rating at ISO 50 and developing - 15% time in Silvermax developer. 

In the past I’ve tried and used diferent devopers, D-23  (I loved it), Rodinal (I never liked it), T-Max (excellent in particular for T-Max films), HC 110 (Great for his long shelf life but it made some grain), Microphen (for pshing Ilford HP5 to ISO 800), ID 11, D 76 and X-Tol. Lately I used Xtol at several dilutions (I think that it work very well at 1:3 with FP4 and at 1:1 with HP5) but it has the inconvenient that I shall prepare 5 L. and this is too much for my use, when I will finish the remain stock I will be back to D 76 or ID 11, everybody says that hey are the same developer formula, ID 11 uses Phenidone and D 76 Metol, Phenidone is a little bit more energic than Metol who is more smooth,  and D-76 is cheaper than ID-11. I’ve read very good reviews about the D-76 Divided, you are lucky you can buy it in US in Photographers Formulary, import it to Spain become too expensive.

For developing times and Time/Temp conversions I use:

https://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php

I have used during years the Jobo tanks, but now I’m using Stainless tanks and reels, I’ve found this useful tool from kindermann and it is very fast load a reel:

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOF6yti8RMU>

Ilford has a similar one.

I’m lucky, I have a friend in Barcelona who has a densitometer and once I’ve considered that my developing was correct I’ve measured the densities to be sure I’m in the good average.

I hope this helps

Cheers
Lluis





> El 27 maig 2018, a les 5:09, Howard L Ritter Jr <hlritter at twc.com> va escriure:
> 
> After at least 15 years away from the darkroom, I’m going to shoot and develop a few rolls of B&W with the M3 or the R9. I don’t know what might have changed in that period, and of course I’ve forgotten a lot of what little I knew. I see a number of posts from regular users of film, so I see a resource here on the LUG. You know who you are, Lluis, Jim, Nathan...
> 
> Any recommendations for film and developer/dilution/technique? Some will be daylight and some available light, I expect.
> 
> —howard
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information