Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/02/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Bob, Both of those shots look very good on my screen. I expose Neopan 1600 at 1200 and develop it in T-Max Developer for 4 minutes at 22 degrees centrigrade, which is what Fuji recommends, except for 1600 instead of 1200, which gives better shadow tones. T-Max developer is utterly reliable and gives a very good tonal range and the best film speed you can get consistent with a long tonal range. I have found Xtol to be the opposite of reliable (as have many if not most other users); it fails completely unexpectedly, when it is fresh and you have done everything scrupulously right. I stopped using it some years ago because I couldn't put up with the heart ache of losing whole rolls of valuable exposures. Robert ----- Original Message ----- From: "bob palmieri" <rpalmier@depaul.edu> To: <lug@leica-users.org> Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 10:53 PM Subject: [Leica] Neopan-Xtol Xpert-Tease Sought > 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 > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >