Delta 400 too grainy

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I have been using Delta 400 (35mm) for the past few months and generally finding it way too grainy when developed in D76. I have tried using both inversion and the twirler with fresh D76 at 1:1 but often the grain is quite noticeable even on prints smaller than 8x10! Has anyone had this same experience or perhaps know of a better developer for this film. The tonal range is just fine with normal developement so I would like to keep using this film. Thanks.

-- Andy Laycock (agl@intergate.bc.ca), March 31, 1998

Answers

I've developed Delta 400 in Xtol 1:3 and it's slightly grainier than Tmax 400, IOW not very grainy at all.

-- Tim Brown (brownt@ase.com), April 06, 1998.

I just developed a roll of 35mm Delta 400 in PMK Pyro, using chemicals from Photographers' Formulary and their development times minus one minute for 35mm film. It produced the most beautiful (quality, not subject matter) 35mm prints I've ever made in 25 years in the darkroom. At 8X enlargement (35mm neg) the grain is scarcely noticeable, and is only slightly greater than in a print of the same subject taken on Delta 400 120 film (6x6), developed in Microphen and enlarged to 8x8 (whatever that enlargement ratio is.) In both cases the grain is there if you want to look for it, but the quality of the image is such that grain is not something that strikes you when you look at it.

Compared to Kodak developers that I've used over the years (Microdol, TMax, D-76 and Xtol) PMK is nastier stuff (wear rubber gloves, which I've never done with any other developer, and preferably get the liquid concentrate so you don't have to mix powders for which a properly graded dust mask is strongly recommended) and takes more work during development (agitation every 15 seconds, and save the used developer for reuse after the fix), but if the quality of my test rolls holds up in regular shooting it is well worth the effort.

Photographers' Formulary is at 800-922-5255 (mountain time zone) or http://www.montana.com/formulary/index/html. Their catalog offers some quite interesting-sounding chemicals for nearly all black and white and a few color darkroom processes. For now, I'm sticking to working out the PMK details for various films.

-- Kip Babington (cbabing3@swbell.net), April 06, 1998.


Another PMK user!

I'm glad to see another PMK user here. I've been shouting the virtues of PMK til I'm blue in the face. Amazingly, an awful lot of photographers just don't want to venture outside their narrow range of experience no matter what the potential benefits. Sad.

Have you tried Delta 100 in PMK yet? D-400 is very, very good, but D-100 in PMK is in another world. When I print from a 4X5 negative, I can't focus on grain; there is none. I have to find some fine detail and focus on that. Skin tones literally glow. There is some synergistic, super-additive phenomenom with this combination.

-- Michael D Fraser (mdfraser@earhtlink.net), April 08, 1998.


I have been using Delta 400 as my main film of choice and generally use Xtol stock or T-max 1:4 for developing. I have found the grain to be very fine and comperable to that of some 100 speed films of other companies.

-- Colin J Davis (Corrrosive@aol.com), January 28, 1999.

I wonder if you're overdeveloping the film. Of course one person's "too grainy" is another person's "fine-enough grain." Anyway...try Xtol 1:2 or T-Max dev 1:4 to 1:6 or so for normal contrast with a reasonable development time. Be careful to not underexpose or overdevelop. What grade paper or filter do you usually print it with? Other factors...what appears to be graininess might be micro-reticulation, which is the same thing as ordinary obvious crinkly reticulation but on a much smaller scale. Be sure all solution and wash temperatures are close. If temperatures are cold (<66F) or hot (>77F) it'll be grainier than at a more moderate temperature.

-- John Hicks / John's Camera Shop (jbh@magicnet.net), January 28, 1999.


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