Delta 400 -- Rodinal or HC110?

[Vincent Brady (TEX)]

I used stock ID11 to develop Delta 400, and once you store it in the dark it should last a year.

[jthacker43]

Reading Chris Johnson's "The practical zone system". His answer to "What film/developer combination gives the fastest speed with the least grain? is Delta 400 and XTOL. He rates the speed at 400 using XTOL 1:1 for a normal development time of 10min at 20 deg C.
I pick up on this and I'm getting excellent negatives and his recommended expansion and contraction times (in terms of %) I find to be right on the money.
Extra plus with XTOL using it with 1:1 the cost is less than $10 for 10 liters. The only other developer I've found to be less expensive is pyrocat HD

[brofkand]

Thanks everyone for the input. I just ordered a few pouches of D-76 from Freestyle. While I'm waiting for it to arrive I'll shoot some stuff so I'll have some film to test.

I decided to go with D-76 instead of XTOL for a very simple reason: I can't find 1 gallon pouches of XTOL, and all I have are 1 gallon bottles.

[PhotoJim]

5 1-litre bottles are perfect - even better than using one big bottle since all but one bottle will always be full.

Funny, I avoid the big packages of Dektol and D-76 from Kodak precisely because I do all my work in metric and storing and mixing 3.8 litres is awkward.

[David Allen]

I have used Delta 400 with a personal EI of 200 for many many years and am totally satisfied with the results using Thornton's two bath at 5.5 minutes in each bath.

Bset,

David
www.dsallen.de

[brofkand]

I followed a popular suggestion in this thread and got some D-76 again. I swore it off a year ago because I was tired of pouring out a half gallon of brown developer. I think this may be a different time, as the results I got with Delta 400 weren't bad. I'm going to do more test rolls, and some outdoors shots (this was with a strobe). This is worlds better than the results I got with HC-110. In fact not many of my films work well with HC-110 (Or I just don't know how to harness that developer yet); I'm starting to think it was a bad purchase.

[MartinP]

I'd suggest smaller, full, bottles for storing the mixed stock-developer, as it should then last well when undisturbed. If you use D76 or ID11 and want a good sharp result from the Delta films try using it at 1:3 dilution, with the appropriate time change from the Ilford sheet. The extra dilution will minimise the solvent effect of the 'fine-grain' developer as that isn't really so useful with the genuinely fine-grained (or flat-grained at least) Delta films. Nice to read through the Delta-film pdf's from the Ilford site too.

[John Bragg]

Try HC-110 diluted by a greater ammount. Dilution H (the unofficial dilution) is 1:63 and is a very popular way to go especially with less agitation. It produces great tonality and the greater dilution reduces the solvent effect producing sharper results.

useful links

http://www.mironchuk.com/hc-110.html

http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/

[Noobius]

You could try using Ilford LC29. That's what I use with Delta 400 and I get very little grain. I haven't tried pushing it yet, but I doubt I'll have any problems with it.


Cheers,
Alex

[Ronald Moravec]

I was thrilled when the latest version of D400 finally arrived . Then crushed when I saw the results. I could only find two developers that work well, DDX & Xtol, and they work very well.
My old time favorite, D76, did a miserable job.

Pro photogs like Roger Hicks, who wrote the first tests in Shutterbug, came to the DDX conclusion also. Believe it.