My experience with home developing and pushing/pulling is admittedly, quite limited. I have only done it a handful of times and those times were mostly just guesses. "One stop push? Eh I'll tack on a minute and see how it comes out", this has all changed however. As since purchasing my Nikon Coolscan IV I have become increasingly OCD on how my film gets processed. So much so that I have a detailed notebook documenting each tank I process. Including the film, what speed it was shot at, developer used for how long and at what temp. Fixer, stop bath, wash, rinse, pre-soak, the list goes on. This is all in an effort to really get my home processing down to an exact science of what I am looking for. So when it came time to push, I knew I needed to follow the same formula.
Unfortunately for me, I hadn't used an exact science while shooting. I grabbed my 1953 Canon IVSB and 50mm 1.9 lens and went for a walk downtown. Keeping the lens wide open and shooting with 1/60th of a second (changing between 1/40th and 1/100th for varying lighting conditions) I knew that I should be anticipating an ISO of 1600. Which for the Kodak Tri-X film I was using is a small 2 stop push. So that is what I developed for. Now part of the problem lies with how people mix their developers. Some do it from the stock solution, others bypass that and go directly from the concentrate. And for some reason I couldn't figure out the conversion factor for if you had done one or the other.
It should be noted that I was using HC110 to develop these.
After some searching I did find a recipe. One that called for HC110 Dilution B to be developed for 16 minutes at 68 degrees F. This suited me well as Dilution B was what I had used to the prior 4 rolls of film I souped and they were all done at 68 degrees as well. They came out quite well! Check them out for yourself and I'll see you after the photos.
Those are a few of my favorites. As you can see they are very limited in grain. Much much finer than Kodak P3200 @ 3200! Don't get me wrong that is a phenomenal film in its own right, however these results have blown me away! My biggest complaint it the strange halo effect in quick transitions between highlights and shadows. I also haven't retained much shadow detail, but I believe that is because of my relatively quick development time. I'd like to try this again with a stand, or semi-stand development. However then I get back into those confusing HC110 ratios. Next time I will be sure to go straight from the syrup as I hear it has a shelf life of 4 years when partially full! Much better than the two month window I have to use a gallon of concentrate. However at the rate I am going should be no problem to get through.
The lens is another story, this film is too sharp to be dummed down by the Serenar. While a decent performer when stopped down to f/8 (however that only leaves one more stop until it maxes out at f/11). It does add a distinct glow to the images, and this is possibly where my halos are coming from. I wish I could have left these at full resoultion for a finder inspection of grain patterns, yet after a mistake on my part and the lax-laws of internet image sharing I've decided to be a little more strict on what I do. I should probably do a full review at a later date. I haven't seen anything like this lens ever, even on my Holga. It's a shame because it is a gorgeous piece of all metal construction with a whopping 16 blade aperture.
In the end this is certainly a combination I will be trying again, the wonderful tonal range and latitude of Tri-X with a low grain is something that I would like to perfect. Although I have been happy on some occasions with the P3200, I just feel like it is too grainy for its own good. And this stuff is just too good for its own grain.
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