Can I use Ilford PQ Universal to develop 35mm film?

[ColdEye]

how about in neopan 400 instead of tmax? Ok, i will try a test roll and use your dev shots. Thanks very much. Can I see some picture samples?

[mr.datsun]

I do not doubt it with tabular-grained films. It would be hard to make T-Max all that grainy in almost any developer.

I meant to type 400TX – ie. Tri-X.

[Rick A]

My recommendation for film is Kodak D-76. This is the developer that all others are compared to. Mix the powder to a stock solution and use straight or diluted, you won't be disappointed in the results(unless you err). Tri-X and D-76 is an age-old favorite combo of many photographers.

[2F/2F]

I meant to type 400TX – ie. Tri-X.

My mistake. I read your post wrong.

The new Tri-X is actually a very fine grained film, despite the reputation of Tri-X in general. It looses sharpness as you enlarge it more and more, but the grain is not terribly apparent even in 8x enlargements.

What size prints did you make from your film?

[mr.datsun]

My mistake. I read your post wrong.

The new Tri-X is actually a very fine grained film, despite the reputation of Tri-X in general. It looses sharpness as you enlarge it more and more, but the grain is not terribly apparent even in 8x enlargements.

What size prints did you make from your film?

Increasingly off-topic but I think I agree about 400TX and grain. It's a got a very tight modern technological feel to it – at least in RO9. It's OK, but I'm not sure I like it that much. I wish they'd stuck to the old Tri-X formula. I think the only film that ticks my boxes as far as grain goes is HP5+. That film seems to remain fairly immune to those market forces that desire the grainless scannable film for that smooth photoshop look.

Looking through my contact sheets and prints, I realised that i didn't print from the end of the tri-x roll done in PQ universal. Contact looked good, but I think I evaluated the grain looking through the focus scope! I will do a print this week, though.

[Ian Grant]

You can use PQ Universal and the grain is quite reasonably fine, not much different to D76 in fact and the negatives are a touch sharper. However you'd need to use a dilution like 1+19 or better still 1+29.

Ilford used to publish times for 120 films in PQ Universal a starting point would be 7 minutes at 1+19 @ 20°C. I did test 35mm FP4 in PQ Universal in the mid 1980's along with some other developers and the results were impressive but there was a slight speed loss compared to Rodinal and ID-11.

Ian

[mr.datsun]

I had another look and identified the print from Universal PQ as I was worrying that I'd imagined the fine grain. The print confirms a subtle fine grain at 6x enlargement. Much less grain than RO9.