Re: Some reflections; Leica thoughts

[Gary J Toop <gtoop@uoguelph.ca>]

	I read Curt's comments on film choices and techniques and 
Eric's and Marc's respose to those comments with some interest.  I have 
been thinking of putting up a short posting on my own experiences and 
soliciting other's views, so I will add a few comments of my own to what 
has already been posted.

1)  Like Marc, I have found contrast control with TMax 400 to be a bit of 
a problem.  I am careful, but I don't have regular access to a good 
darkroom and so temperature control could be the problem.  I have found 
Delta 400 to be much easier to control and to give very nice results if 
souped in HC110 and I have heard that D-76/ID-11 work well with it too.  
However, I am finicky about mid-range contrast and I find that I have 
a (very personal, subjective) preference for the very smooth tonal scale 
that I can get with HP5+ when I am shooting with my Leica.  It seems to 
be a cheaper, less finicky alternative to TMax 400, although admittedly, 
it does not have as fine grain.  I like to develop it in Edwal's FG-7 
which gives a tight, sharp grain pattern and a very pretty tonal scale.  
It works well with HC110 too and it is supposed to work very nicely with 
Microphen.
	Incidentally, I had an extended e-mail chat with a fellow who 
posts on rec.photo.darkroom about Microphen, which he has come to use 
all the time with TMax films.  He swears that at 1:3 and 75F it works 
very well with both TMax 100 and TMax 400 and that it is easier to 
control contrast with it than with TMax RS developer. 

2)  Like Curt, my preferences in a medium speed film have not yet 
completely settled.  It looks as though I will probably settle on either 
TMax 100, Delta 100 or FP4+, probably one of the latter two.  However, I 
do not really like what HC110 does with medium speed films, even at a 
fairly high dilution.  
	Popular Photography ran an article in Dec `79 in 
which they argued that when you developed both the medium and the high 
speed films of the day in D-76, there really wasn't much reason for 
preferring the medium to the high speed films.  FP4 in D-76 just wasn't 
that much better than Tri-X in D76:  the grain was only marginally 
smaller and the tonal content only a little better.  They suggested that 
to get the most out of medium speed films, you need a developer that 
gives you high accutance and squeezes every bit of tonal information out 
of your negatives.  Their vote went to Rodinal at a 1:50, 1:75 or 1:100 
dilutions.  
	Although I think that HC110 does better on the accutance/tonal 
scale front than does D-76, and we are now dealing with a new generation 
of films,  I still have a definite preference for Rodinal when it comes 
to medium speed and slow films.  It has a reputation for producing very 
grainy negs, but in my experience, it only does that when you start 
trying to push the film:  even just a couple of extra minutes in the 
developer can give you much more noticable grain.  (That said, it is 
possible to increase contrast with Rodinal by lowering the dilution to 
1:25, so Zone system control is certainly not ruled out.)  I have recently 
been discussing Rodinal's merits with a fellow who has been using it for 
many years and insists that unless you overdevelop it, you won't notice 
the difference in grain between it and D-76 until you get up to fairly 
high degrees of enlargement - say 8x.  I have found that the grain I get 
with TMax 100 is only marginally larger than what I get using TMax RS 
developer.   The only penalty that I have noticed is that you might lose 
a little speed - usually 1/3 of stop compared to D-76 - but you also tend 
to get a little better shadow detail, so that may only matter if you are 
really worried about Zone 1 densities.  The speed loss seems to vary 
tremendously with film type too.   

	Like Marc, I can recommend the Rodinal 1:50/TMax 100 combination, 
although I usually shoot it at ISO 64 or 50:  the negatives are very 
sharp and have an enormous amount of detail and the tones are very 
nicely distinguished.  I have only used a little Delta 100/Rodinal, but I 
like the results that I have been able to get and many people have been 
reporting very good results and high ISOs with the combination.  I plan 
to do more experimenting and this may well turn out to be the combination 
that I go with, as it seems to be very sharp, easy to control, and to 
have a very nice `feel'.   That said, I have found that FP4+ seems to 
have a smoother tonal scale and that, like HP5+, I like the `feel' of 
that scale with my Summicron.

3) Pan F+ and APX25 both are wonderful in Rodinal 1:50.


Well, that's about all that I have to pass on for now.  I look forward to 
hearing about others' favourite combinations:  this discussion has been 
very interesting.

Gary Toop