Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/11/27

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Subject: [Leica] Neopan 400
From: hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (G Hopkinson)
Date: Mon Nov 27 23:39:07 2006

Marc, no apologies, required. As you say, what works best for each person.
I've only recently returned to b&w after a very long hiatus and its very 
much learning from scratch. The other factor for me is that
I am scanning the negs and that definitely requires an adjustment. Basically 
10 to 20% underdevelopment in my case.
Still I'm quite grain sensitive and long for those smooth tones from the 
medium format stuff. I can get closer converting from
colour neg or trans, but where's the fun in that?

Distinguish too between the Acros at 100 ISO and the 400.
Another consideration for me is that I like to support Fujifilm and Ilford.
Cheers
Hoppy

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+hoppyman=bigpond.net.au@leica-users.org 
[mailto:lug-bounces+hoppyman=bigpond.net.au@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Marc James Small
Sent: Tuesday, 28 November 2006 15:12
To: Leica Users Group; 'Leica Users Group'
Subject: [Leica] Neopan 400

At 08:31 PM 11/27/2006, G Hopkinson wrote:
 >Marc I haven't seen such an opinion on the Neopan 400 before. From my
 >own recent and limited b&w renaissance, I've had better
 >results from the Neopan vs HP5.

Hoppy

Perhaps I spoke in haste and, certainly, whatever 
works for you, works for you.  I go back a LONG 
way with Ilford, back to H.P. 3 in 1965, which I 
used to pump up to 1200 ASA for astrophotography 
in my High School days.  This is an emulsion I 
really like and understand after four decades of 
use.  I generally develop it in home-brewed D-76 
but I also use one of several Crawley mixes or 
ID-11 and even XTOL, when I can find it.  For 
that matter, I've had some really good results with HP-5 and Rodinal.

I had a miserable time with Neopan in its early 
days and I've not tried it since then.  It was an 
unworkable emulsion with a huge learning 
curve.  I had climbed that one already to tame 
T-Max but simply lacked the time and energy to 
learn how to use Neopan when I was so damned 
happy with HP-5.  (I eventually DID learn the 
trick to using T-Max and came to love it for its 
virtues, though I never warmed to its higher-speed brethren.)

So, if you find Neopan friendly to your needs, I 
apologize.  I simply find it an unworkable film 
with little apparent benefit and much 
difficulty.  Perhaps I ought to try it again.

Marc




msmall@aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!



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In reply to: Message from marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small) ([Leica] Neopan 400)