Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/02/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Everyone's mileage (and water, and cameras, and lenses) varies. I'm finding my development times are close to what Kodak recommends. And I'm getting speeds that approach ISO. Where I used to give up 1/2 to 1 stop, I'm getting the rated speed or 1/3 stop less. I also use a condensor head. Generally speaking, I only use normal development. The variety of contrast ranges that can occur on one 35mm roll makes contractions or expansions impractical. VC paper, burning and dodging take up the slack. Sometimes I'll have a roll that is pretty consistent in contrast range. Those rolls get plus or minus development, but that's the exception. Roger > My experince has always been that Kodak gives too high a developing > time for my taste. But also they often rate the film speeds too > high. I like more shadow detail, so I use slightly lower > film speed settings. Also, the developing times should depend > upon subject contrast and the contrast you prefer for printing. > I use a condenser enlarger which produces about one contrast > grade more contrast than a dichroic filter diffusion one, so > my times are generally shorter. For high contrast scenes I > give about 30 percent less development time. For slightly low > contrast scenes I give about 30 to 50 percent more time. But > the base time is generally shorter than the Kodak (or Ilford) > recommended starting time. > >