Tri-X @ 1600 developer sharp and dirty.

[mexipike]

I know there are plenty of discussions about this and I've searched through them but just wanted some more thoughts. I had stopped my film for a little while and had been shooting digital but came back to film, and acquired a Leica M6 with a 50 summicron. Arista has the rebranded tri-x for such a great price and I always used to love it so that's the route I want to take.For the world I like to shoot 1600 is the perfect iso, I tend to like dark bars, cantinas, strip clubs etc. So I'm looking for developer ideas. The main goal is sharpness. I really love a razor sharp face. I may use flash sometimes as well. Grain is not an issue, good tonality would also be nice. In the past I used HC110 at 1:100 in a semi stand setup but am not sure if that's for me. I also used Xtol but rarely to 1600. The other day I tried rodinal just agitating the first minute then stand for an hour, and thought it was Ok. Does anyone really love 35mm trix at 1600 in Rodinal? I loved Pyrocat when i used to use it but will it do 1600?

So to simplify the question: Favorite developer for 135 Tri-X pushed to 1600 with emphasis on Sharpness.

P.S. I'm mostly scanning now but plan to get back into printing soon.

[Leighgion]

I've been very happy with my results pushing Tri-X to 1600. Have tried souping a couple different ways.

D76 1+1

Crushing the American Spirit by Leighgion, on Flickr

1:100 Rodinal Stand

Girl on a Boat by Leighgion, on Flickr

[Rom]

What about Diafine ? It gives the best results (IMO) at 1250 but i think it's ok at 1600. Especially with Tri-x (and arista of course)

And, it's is a very flexible developper.

[michael stevens]

I'd suggest giving Xtol another try. I like it 1:1 for 13.5 minutes with the standard Kodak recommended agitation.

[presspass]

It's a little offbeat, but I've had good luck with D-23 1:1 at 16 minutes, 68ºf. The negs are denser than those from X-tol or Diafine, but print well.

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Xtol 1+3 makes a mighty sharp negative. At EI 1,600 I would recommend starting somewhere around 18 minutes, agitating every 2 minutes for ten seconds, fully inverting and twisting the tank two or three times. This combination gives a huge amount of shadow detail, and almost normal looking negatives in spite of two stops underexposure.

[SteveR]

Yep, Xtol gets you great speed. When I found out that Arista was TriX I started buying it in bulk rolls, what a bargain! I've completely standardized on Xtol now, 1:1 at 'normal' speed, 1:3 at 1600, almost fool-proof

[Roger Cole]

What about Diafine ? It gives the best results (IMO) at 1250 but i think it's ok at 1600. Especially with Tri-x (and arista of course)

And, it's is a very flexible developper.

Agree with most of this and I use it regularly with Arista/Tri-X but I don't think it's as sharp as most of the other suggestions here. Sharp enough for me but if sharp is what you want I think Xtol will easily best it especially at 1+3.

[Michael R 1974]

Actually plain old D76 1+3 would probably look sharper than XTOL 1+3 with Tri-X.

[Chris Lange]

I shoot Tri-X at 1600 and 3200 more often than I shoot it at 400 or 200.

A lot more often. I like to use straight D-76, or straight Acufine, or DD-X 1:9, with lots of agitation.

For even more fun I use a Red 25 on my lens (either a 35/1.4, 50/1.4, 85/1.4, or 105/1.8)

It's an acquired taste. You've been warned.