On Feb 13, 2010, at 12:54 PM, Mark Rabiner wrote:
I basically agree with this. There are subtle differences, and my own preference is for Xtol, but honestly focusing on soup is missing the forest for the trees. If you're that good that it's the developer that's keeping you from greatness, my hat's off to you. I have yet to see the portfolio that holds the argument... Eric GoldsteinThe results I got from Xtol 1:3 I found broke most of the rules and gave mequality of a whole new ballgame. Non subtle differences. In effect my medium speed films looked like slow speed films Fast films looked like medium speed films (400=100) Both in terms of grain and sharpness. You normally have to pick or or another. With Xtol 1:3 I got both.Normal for me for street shooting was Neopan 1600 which gave me better thanTri x in D76 1:1 results.In the studio Across 100 looked like Agfapan 25 or stuff of a larger format.[Rabs] Mark William Rabiner
Xtol has been a unique film developer in providing increased sharpness, finer grain and higher film speed compared to standard D76. In addition, it achieved optimum results on both conventional and tabular grain films that I developed with it, and it lasted twice as long in storage than anything else not in syrup form. Usually with developers, one or more of these enhancements comes at the expense of others. However, I never thought Xtol blew the competition into the weeds, especially in medium format. There may be more than subtle differences visible in Godzilla size enlargements, but I seldom enlarge beyond 10X. At that magnification, Xtol qualities may be visible but have no aesthetic effect worth considering, IMHO. Still, I really liked it for its quality and convenience, and it replaced several developers I kept on hand for different films. After 2 1/2 years of bliss with Xtol, a developer sudden death incident ended the honeymoon. Unless there has been further word on the subject, I believe the cause was an inherent instability in the developing agent which is some form of vitamin C.
Fuji 1600 is the best 35 mm B&W film ever, IMHO (I'm an available light kind of guy), my only regret being it didn't come in 120. For that I had to rely on Ilford Delta 3200, which was okay, but not up to the Fuji.
Allen Zak --- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx- Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org
- Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org
- Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
