Too much grain

[timor]

That's about it it seems, either D76 not a compatible developer for Ilford

Every film is made to look in D76 rather sufficiently good. It is most popular developer in the world and for most application is satisfactory. I am not saying it is good enough but it is satisfactory as long as you don't try to print large. There is some other reason for your too large grain in your sample, could be overheated film (sometime during storage) or your developer was too hot. Your sample displays strong contrast (that also might be from scanning, and manipulation after scanning) from mild pushing. Size of grain is not created by dying developing agent but by sodium sulfite, a salt which dissolves metallic silver. D76 has of it just too much to be a good developer for modern films. But it is "compatible".

 

[Josh66]

Ilford's ID-11 is the exact same thing as D76.

 

[smithdan]

what's film?

Floppy stuff in sheets or rolls invented to replace drippy wet glass or this equally weird and wet metal

 

[smithdan]

Vimwiz and Timor - Mixing, storage and use by the book. used D76 0n and off for over 30 years as it was cheap and handy. Can't think of any accidents happening for film or chemistry. HP5 was mail order from Calumet in late Dec. may have been frozen in the mail but heat?? FP4 bought locally (Saneal Calgary).

Josh - remember now, same chemistry.

So, what I've learned here is to reload, reshoot, reprocess with fresh chemistry and hope for the results I'm used to. Ill check my thermometer as well. High contrast probably due to pp fiddling about to try and get something visable from these.

Thanks again guys..
.

 

[Josh66]

So, what I've learned here is to reload, reshoot, reprocess with fresh chemistry and hope for the results I'm used to.

Figure out what the variables are and eliminate them one by one.

 

[timor]

but heat[/COLOR]?? FP4 bought locally (Saneal Calgary).

Yes, heat can do much bad to the emulsion. This is always possible, between factory and you there is a bunch of people handling this film, some of them ignorant. Some retailers will sell to the customers bad material knowingly. Example is Freestyle selling knowingly bad batch of Arista Edu 200. There are simply no guaranties...

 

[smithdan]

Have 1/2 roll of that FP4 left and a full bottle of D76 stock at the 3 month point. Makes sense to repeat the exercise with what I have around. may not prove anything but at least it's a shot.

Just hate wasting materials. Hate more reducing my old cameras to ornaments that only get dusted from time to time.

 

[timor]

OK. Good luck.

 

[Josh66]

Just hate wasting materials.

I bulk load, so I always have a few 12 exposure rolls laying around for testing purposes.

Without that option, I would try to narrow the possible causes down as much as possible before actually using any film.

 

[smithdan]

good idea. Already have a loader. For tests I crank about half a 36 off and get usually two 14 - 15 rolls. Should break down and buy 100 ft and new cassettes anyway. Paid almost 12CAD for the last HP4 36. Ouch!

 

[smithdan]

Busy Spring and early Summer so no time to play. Finally got a chance today to shoot and develop a roll of FP4, same camera Voigtlander Vitomatic I, processed in the same batch of D76 which was mixed in late Dec and stored at room temp in an almost full bottle. Used the meter on the camera. Only big difference this time was to use the developer full strength. The developed negatives looked to have the right density and scanned well. Whatever caused the unacceptable grain back in March, error on my part or some other factor remains a mystery.


a few examples complete with dust and scratches. Pleasant camera to use. nice heft, smooth controls, quiet. Wish it was the rangefinder model but not a big deal.

 

[timor]

There is a difference in your processing, you used full strength D76. That's the difference. In mean time I found few threads about that, people complaining about too much grain while using D76 1:1 with TriX or HP5. Looks like 1:1 is very good with tabular grain films, where too much silver solving action is really unwanted. In the case of thick grain films like HP5 watered down D76 apparently doesn't work well. In any case I would switch to Tmax Dev. or DDX (isn't it same thing ?)

 

[vintagesnaps]

Talk about zombies, this showed up with some auto-saved content I may or may not have ever posted! Since it seems moot now I'll just say your latest set of photos are very nice; I have a different model Vito but it's a great little camera.