[Leica] Neopan-Xtol Xpert-Tease Sought

[rpalmier at depaul.edu (bob palmieri)]

Folks -

I seem to recall that some Luminary Lug-gers have worked out the  
details of Neopan 1600 in Xtol 1:3.

I shot 2 rolls at 1600 and sent it to my Usual Guy who did the Xtol  
thing at 1:3, although I didn't get his time/temp specs.  They both  
looked pretty thin, but otherwise very impressive in terms of grain  
structure.  So. I'm wondering:

Should I try 800 ISO next round and have him do whatever he did  
(seeing as how the web and the mags are full of folks who claim that  
this stuff really ain't anywhere near 1600), or

Should I try 1600 again and specify some percentage of increase in  
development time (if so how much, d'ya think, without being able to  
see the negs)?

For what it's worth, here's a shot from each of the rolls (after I  
beat on them a bit with levels & curves in Photoshop)- the first is  
from my new(!!??!) Nikon F (??!!?) with a 50 1.4 cropped close to the  
field of an 85:

http://www.pbase.com/bobsworld/image/74860346

And this one, shot with my CL and 35 4th gen 'cron:

http://www.pbase.com/bobsworld/image/74896881

Or I s'ppose I could shoot another coupla rolls and try both...  I  
gotta say, under the 30X mag the grain structure looked more  
appealing to me than anything I've ever shot above 400.

Bob Palmieri