Developer advice, fast films.

TimSmith-Laing · 07-03-2010

Hi guys,

Am on a developing binge at the moment, mostly with roll after roll of foma 200, which I've been souping in ilfosol 3. Love the results. But I've also got some more exotic film stock that I need to develop, some Neopan 1600 shot at EI 800, and some Delta 3200 that I had to shoot at box speed thanks to terrible lighting.

I'm running short on Ilfosol (more is on its way), but I have some Perceptol to make up. So I have several questions:

First: Would the Neopan work well at 800 in my perceptol, and if so, what dilution and what timing? Or would it work better in the Ilfosol 3? I can't find any recommendations for NP in Perceptol, but I was under the impression that for a given loss in speed, Perceptol gives fine grain results with the fast films ... Have I misunderstood?

Second: From what I hear, I haven't a hope in hell of getting worthwhile results with the D3200 in either Ilfosol3 or Perceptol. Given that I need to squeeze every drop of speed from it, what developer should I use? And should I be using the same developer for the NP1600 rather than trying it in Ilfosol3 or Perceptol? If it's of use, the D3200 is MF, which I'm hoping will mitigate the graininess.

I'm pretty inexperienced with film developing, so please keep it simple! By preference, I'd love recommendations for other Ilford developers in particular, since they're easy for me to get hold of and I'd really like to familiarise myself with one set of products before I try branching out.

Cheers in advance,

Tim

TareqPhoto · 07-03-2010

I hope members here can answer you.
To my bad luck, i was going to shoot Delta 3200 2 days ago, but the weather was very very bad, so i may try soon, then i will develop it with D-76, i have Ilfosol 3 as well, but many recommended me to use D-76 or XTOL which i also have or Rodinal [don't have] or HC-110, I have ID-11 which is same D-76, so i will give it a try and see how it will perform.

flip · 07-03-2010

xtol seems to work well for fast or pushed films.

Brian Legge · 07-03-2010

I've been happy with the results I've gotten with both of those films in DD-X. I'm not thrilled with the price of DD-X though so I'm planning to try XTOL once I finish my current bottle.

If you aren't planning on doing a large number of rolls - if the cost per roll isn't a huge issue - I'd definitely recommend DD-X. It is convenient and the results are nice. Here is a batch of my shots (P3200 and Delta 3200) in DD-X: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=5965...&q=dd-x&m=text I developed some Neopan 1600 shots my wife took with it - that was a beautiful combo as well.