High acutance/low grain

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Hi,

I know its somewhat a win and lose issue, but Im looking around for film - developer combinations to obtain high acutance and low grain.

I've tried several combos, but I have'nt found anything I really like till now.

For now my favorite films are agfapan 100 and ilford PanF. Im open for sugestions :)

(I'll be using 120 or 220 films)

Thanks

Diego K.

-- Diego K. (heuristica@yahoo.com), May 19, 2001

Answers

Agfapan APX 25 has higher acutance and lower grain then Agfapan 100

Agfapan APX 25 is still available in 17 m bulk. I bought two 17m cans a few month ago.

However, Agfapan APX 25 is on the way out.

It is a pity.

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), May 19, 2001.


I like Ilford Pan F developed in FX-2. FX-2 is a high acutance developer available from Photographer's Formulary. The grain of Pan F developed with FX-2 is higher than with solvent developers such as D-76 but is still small compared to other films. I use stand development (one hour with 15 seconds initial agitation and no agitation thereafter).

-- Bert Krages (krages@onemain.com), May 21, 2001.

FP4 responded well to 'Nucleol BF200' a developer of Italian manufacture. I don't know if BF200 is still in production, but it's certainly not easy to find in the UK. I haven't yet tried it with FP4plus.
I used to use PanF a lot, until Tmax100 came out. In terms of pure fineness of grain there's no contest; Tmax blows PanF away, but still seems to be slightly less sharp. I prefer the tonality of Tmax though, and stopped using PanF many years ago.
The sharpest negatives I've ever obtained were on FP4.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), May 22, 2001.

Delta 100 in PMK is the best I've ever seen for high acutance and fine grain. FX-2 is just as sharp, but the grain is more prominent. Agfa 25, if you can still find it, does not mate so well with PMK, but would be a good match with FX-2.

-- Ted Kaufman (writercrmp@aol.com), July 04, 2001.

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