Favourite film/developer for pushing

[Paul Ewins]

Hi,
I've been shooting some hand-held portraits with my 4x5 Speed Graphic using 100 ISO film and flash bulbs. I'd like to try some available light photography, but still shooting hand-held so I'm looking at pushing 400 film to 1600 or more. What I would like to know is your favourite film and developer combination to achieve these sort of speeds.

Locally (Melbourne, Australia) I can get HP5, Tri-X, T-Max 400 and Rollei R3 in 4x5.

Developing will be in a 3010 drum on a Jobo CPP, so long times and critical temperatures aren't a problem.

I'm aiming for a 12x16 print with only a small amount of cropping.

The Rollei R3 seemed promising, if expensive, but some comments on photo.net made me wonder if I couldn't achieve the same results with a cheaper film.

TIA,

Paul

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

Tmx 400, nuff said, if they sold it in 12x20 I would be using it even if they charged $400 per 25 sheet box....

[Paul Ewins]

Jorge, are you using the T-max developer? Standard Kodak times?

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

No, I use Pyrocat HD with times derived from BTZS testing. I am thinking Xtol might be a good non staining developer so I will be testing it next week. With Pyrocat I get an easy N-2 to N+2. Given the kind of light I photograph here in Mexico this is perfect for me.

[Donald Qualls]

If you could get it in sheets, the 400TX emulsion has the best pushing qualities of any ISO 400 emulsion now available -- I've seen very nice results at EI 3200 with it.

Failing that, 320TXP produces nice images (though some find them low in contrast) at EI 1000 in Diafine, and can be conventionally pushed to 1250 or even 1600 with a little care in developer selection or via semi-stand or stand development in a suitable soup (highly dilute HC-110 and highly dilute Rodinal are the best known stand developers).

My limited experience pushing TMY (T-Max 400, now 400TMY) has been disappointing; unlike 400TX, it's really not at all good beyond EI 1600 and pretty thin even then (however, I haven't tried TMY at a higher EI since I started developing my own film again because I had Tri-X and Diafine for the one camera I have that's comfortable with really high EI in good light, and I've seen results that looked okay from EI 3200, so it may push better than my experience has suggested).

If you're not doing your own developing, however, you might be ahead to get a roll film back and shoot Delta 3200 -- at least you and your lab are a little more likely to agree on how to process that for EI 1600 or 3200...

[bob carnie]

I would recomend HP5 push to 800 or 1600 and processed in Microphen. One of my clients uses this formula for hand held available light 4x5 work and the results are excellent.

[John Sarsgard]

I also recommend HP5+ in Microphen or DDX. If the new 400TX were only available in sheet film, I would use that in XTOL. I've pushed 400TX in XTOL to 800 lots of times in 120, and works fine. I do give it an extra minute in the soup, contrary to Kodak instructions. But the HP5 should be fine.

[David A. Goldfarb]

For handheld 4x5" work, I usually use Tri-X 320 or J&C Classic 400 at EI 640 in Acufine. HP5+ will probably give you a little more speed in Acufine--maybe 800.

I tried tweaking the XR-1 formula to see if I could get more, and I did get another stop over Acufine, but the result was kind of flat. It would work well for night photography under high contrast situations, but I just wanted something for normal conditions.

With normal push developers, I don't think there's really more than one or two stops to be had, if you really are measuring film speed as Zone I density. For more, you might try a combination of a speed developer (Acufine, Microphen, Diafine, XR-1) and pre-flashing or a technique like stand development. After that, you're looking at techniques like "hypering" and such.