Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/10/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Xtol is best. I shoot Neopan 1600 @ EI 640 and develop for 11 minutes in Xtol 1+3. This is seriously divergent from Mark's data, but it works for me. TMZ works best in Xtol 1+1 - higher dilutions produce a lot of grain and very high dilutions don't have enough developer to get proper density. The Kodak times - 20% worked fine for me - I generally shot this film at EI1000 but haven't used it for a couple of years. D76 1+2 with 2-5g/L ascorbate works well, but isn't as good as Xtol. It's more alkaline, which I think encourages grain. I'll try to test that scientifically someday. The high alkalinity can sometimes cause the activate the ascorbate alone (rather than synergistically with the other developers) which can get ugly. This has been a problem for some with Patrick Gainer's PC-TEA, but can be fixed by adding a little bromide. D76 probably isn't alkaline enough for this to pose a problem, but it's worth bearing in mind. Whatever film you use, I'd strongly recommend developing at least one test roll to get your time right. It's not worth experimenting on rolls that hold valuable images (like wedding shots). Marty -- Want an e-mail address like mine? Get a free e-mail account today at www.mail.com!