Films and the developers they like

[Alex Hawley]

When I was doing 35mm and MF, I had pretty well standardized on Tri-X TX developing in Xtol with a dash of Rodinal thrown in. When I moved to 4x5, I started a contest between APX 100/Rodinal 1:50 and Tri-X TXT. I was just a little dissapointed in the TXT because it tended to blown out a little in the highlights. Not quite as versatile as the TX stuff. I had just decided to standardize on APX 100 when Agfa decided to pull the plug on its LF production. Now I'm leaning towards J&C 200/ABC pyro. TXT/ABC looks good but even more tendancy to blow out highlights in a high contrast situation.

Looks like J&C 200 may become the standard. I'm seeing good reports on Sandy King's pyrocat so may have to give it a comparative try.

Life is much easier when i only have to worry about one film/one developer. All the technical variety that is available is just too much clutter for me.

[David A. Goldfarb]

TXT/PMK holds highlight detail quite well. I use that combo for 4x5", which I usually enlarge with a cold light head. TXT/ABC I use for negs to be contact printed on Azo, which can accomodate (and needs!) a little more highlight density.

[Alex Hawley]

I have a 1-liter PMK kit setting on my shelf, awaiting trial. But David, there's certainly been a lot of controversy about PMK recently in the forums we both follow. That, and lack of time currently, is why I've been holding back from it.

I thought TXT/ABC was outstanding on low to medium contrast, and that was using the 1:1:1 mixture. But in each case where I had bursts of white, such as clouds or light details amidst gray and black, the highlights have blocked up with loss of detail and texture. But I never had that problem using TX and assorted developers.

I don't know what the technical difference between TX and TXT is, much less why Big K saw fit to make the difference, but I wish the TX emulsion was available in LF.

[David A. Goldfarb]

TXT is theoretically the same as TXP, and has a longer toe than TX, so it's a little less forgiving, aside from being rated nominally at 320 instead of 400.

There is a lot of hype around PMK, and I've been going back and forth on the issue of "background stain" and whether it really has any significant grain masking effect, but the thing it does well is hold highlight detail, and the edge effects are real as well. I think there is some grain masking effect, since it produces smoother looking grain than ABC, but it's not obvious that increasing the background stain with a PMK afterbath does much to improve it, at the expense of raising base fog density.

Since you have the kit, give it a go. The stock solutions are very long lasting, and it's quite easy to mix up the working solution on the spot whenever you need it.

[lee]

I will jump in here and say that I have been using PMK with HP5+ for over 4 years and have just used it on 2 boxes of Classic 200. The negs look great. I am using ei 100. They have more color (green) than the HP5+. I will attempt to print some tomorrow. I don't think I will have any problems in that regard. I would try some of the Pyrocat HD but I still have so much PMK that I would hate to just leave it after it has preformed so well for me in the past. (I am more interested in images than hopping around from one developer to another developer anyway.) I don't have any issues with those that do as it makes my life easier if I can just use the info that they learn and I don't have to do all that work.


lee\c

[Alex Hawley]

Thanks David. Yeah, I'll give PMK a run when I get going again. Right now, things are real booked up until mid-December.

[Alex Hawley]

I am more interested in images than hopping around from one developer to another developer anyway. I don't have any issues with those that do as it makes my life easier if I can just use the info that they learn and I don't have to do all that work.

Agree Lee. I read Sandy King's thread on pyrocat/J&C and I believe he said he got an EI of 200. Any little bit of shutter speed gained is of benefit here in the Land of Perenial Wind, IMO.

[lee]

Hi Alex,
I think you can squeeze ei of 200 out of JCC 200 in PMK. I shot some like that and it looked ok but I liked the shadow detail better at 100. I get full box speed out of Hp5+ with PMK. The only reason I have tried JCC is the glowing reports here on APUG.ORG. It is a nice film. I was in a lot of wind last weekend in very north eastern NM. I asked someone if the wind always blew like this and he said, "No, sometimes it blows from the other direction". I have been in wind in southern AZ that actually blew my camera over. Nothing would have been useable that day. If you need any help with PMK let me know and we can talk about the problems. Don can read the densitys for you if need be.

lee\c

[Alex Hawley]

Thanks Lee. Like I said, I'll give PMK a try a few weeks in the future. I'm afraid I'm building up a stock of half-used developers. Hey Lex, you want some Xtol that was mixed up a few months back?

[Lex Jenkins]

Thanks, Alex, but I'll pass. ;>

I'll get around to trying Xtol again eventually, if only for blending with Rodinal. I got some nice results from Tri-X in a Rodinal/Xtol blend, stand developed. Tonality of Rodinal, fine grain of Xtol. Promising stuff.