Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/05
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on 5/2/00 3:39 am, Gammanyne@aol.com at Gammanyne@aol.com wrote:
> John , thanks for the post, I am using tmax developer, standard dilution
> and rating the film at 1600. I havent tried xtol yet, perhaps this weekend. I
> was about to use acufine but my schedule hasnt allowed me the time to play in
> the darkroom. What can you tell me to exect to expect from xtol, in
> comparison the acufine and or tmax?
> I think for my next test on this stock I will not rate the film so high.
> I had hoped to get the same speed as I get from tmax 3200. Oh well. K.
I think Tmax is rocket fuel rather than developer. It's good for pushing
but that's about all. Kodak only called it Tmax as a marketing ploy: their
t-grain films are actually optimized for D76, like almost all BW films since
this is what they use to do the ISO ratings etc.
Xtol will produce much nicer results than Tmax dev -- better grain, midtones
and highlight control. As for Acufine, I think the grain will be about
equal, but I expect you will get a real speed increase and you will find
that the negs look a tad sharper.
Xtol is IMHO a lovely developer, but has some odd features it pays to be
aware of:
* Some people including me find the stated developement times for Tmax films
to be way off, and bump them up by 20-25%
* Xtol can vary from batch to batch so it pays to run a test roll each time
you mix some up. My current batch needs 15% longer than the last batch for
no reason I can work out.
* Buy the 5 liter packs... there have been problems with 1 liter packs (the
'A' powder goes solid -- it still works, I have found, but why risk it?)
* Use it 1:1. There is no advantage to using straight stock and using it
1:3, although it may give a fraction more sharpness and a slight
compensating effect, increases grain. Since Xtol is already a nice sharp
developer with good highlight control, the gains are IMHO not worth it, and
when you dilute 1:3 you may find unexpected things happen because there
isn't enough developer in the solution (this especially happens with T-grain
films). If you do develop 1:3, you need to make sure each film has at least
100 ml of stock in the dilute solution. e.g. if you develop 4 rolls, you
need 400 ml of stock, which means you need a total volume of 1600 ml... so
you have to develop them in a 2l tank. What a pain.
In spite of all this I find the results are worth it... very clean working
with spectacular midtones, holding detail in the highlights and producing
assertive blacks. A great leica developer. Are we on topic yet?
- --
John Brownlow
photos: http://www.pinkheadedbug.com
music: http://www.jukebox.demon.co.uk