Re: [Leica] B&W film stock questions

["Dan Post" <dwpost@email.msn.com>]

Mitch-
My friend Bob uses Delta3200 in Xtol and I'll be honest with you. From a man
who has sworn by, and at, HP5 and Tri-X in Rodinal and D-76 for about 35
years, I was impressed with the small grain figure and control of contrast
that he was able to obtain!. The J109 document on Kodak's website has the
time and temperature charts for Xtol and about any B&W film you'd care to
try, and it's got times and temps for both small tanks, and rotary
processors, and gives the contrast index for each combination!
Give the Xtol a try- I was truly impressed with the tonal quality, and the
fine grain he obtained with that combination.
Dan (slowly, slowly, becoming a believer!)

- ----- Original Message -----
From: <Zeissleica@aol.com>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 1999 9:00 PM
Subject: [Leica] B&W film stock questions


> Hi all...
>
> Now that I have my M3 kit back and fully operational, I've been shooting
like
> mad and having a ball in the process.  I'm trying to capture one legit
shot
> per day, but am finding it somewhat difficult, though it is getting me
back
> in the habit of looking at everything as a possible composition.
>
> Having not exposed any interesting film stock since I was in college (a
> 1,000,000+ frames of dupe film and a couple hundred rolls of regular Kodak
> Gold print film since then don't count), I am experimenting with any stock
> that catches my fancy.
>
> That said, my family is getting in on the game now and are making desires
> known; chief among them, my brother and his fiance want me to shoot B&W
> available light, informal, candid, handheld photographs (no tripods) at
their
> wedding in November (they will have a professional shooting color for the
> formal stuff).  They know the results will be "artsy", but that's what
they
> want.  I visited the church with them last week to take some meter
readings
> and test shots.
>
> So far, I have tried HP5 (at EI 400) and Delta 3200 (at EI 3200).  The HP5
> looks real good but is too slow for this particular environment; the Delta
> 3200 is scary fast but hideously grainy at 3200 (both were shot wide open
> with my Noct).  Readings are perfect for EI 800 at 1.0/250 to 1.0/125.
>
> My question is thus:
>
> Is the Delta 3200 (EI 800) significantly better to justify trying it (I
> haven't shot it at that speed yet)?  Or should I look into another film
stock
> altogether?  The EI 3200 exposures are just too contrasty and grainy for
me
> to use.
>
> BTW, according to the tests I've done so far...
>
> - Royal Gold 100 is okay
> - Portra 160VC is better
> - Velvia 50 (shot at EI 40) is awesome, stunning and superlative (WOW!)
>
> I'm planning on getting the best of the bunch up on the Web within the
next
> couple of weeks.
>
> /Mitch