Acros quickloads: chemistry and Jobo drum newbie advice needed.

Hi all,

I've decided to commence my LF experience using Fuji Acros Quickloads. I don't have a darkroom so I will be purchasing a Jobo 3006 drum for daylight processing. As I have not used B&W chemicals for 10+ years I have many questions:

1. Which developer are people using for this film and what dilution?
2. Is there a fixer (and developer) which has less odour/ more friendly to one's health? (I have read (somewhere?) that Kodak fixers are less odorous than Ilford).
3. Is Acros rated best at ISO 100?
4. For those using Jobo drums manually, how often do you rotate the drum and for how long? Do you need to pre-soak?

Any other advice for this setup?

Thanks.

Hello Sung. I process Acros manually in a Jobo 3006, on the $25 Jobo roller base. There are many developers that work well with this film (an excellent film). I use XTOL. Mix from powder using only distilled water, and store in full amber glass bottles. I am in Chicago, so I use the tapwater to dilute the stock. I use the TF4 fixer, from Photographers Formulary, it does not have much odor, and I use water as my stop bath and no hypo clear is needed, hence only dev and fix. I use XTOL at 1:1, 1:2 or 1:3 depending on temperature and how many sheets I am developing. I try to use 1:3 for the sake of economy, but under a 6x loupe there is very little difference between 1:1 and 1:3 in the Jobo.

I rotate at 50 rpm and reverse direction every 2 to 3 turns.

I don't pre-soak.

Sung - the amount of chemicals in the Jobo make the health issues less. You're not exposed to open trays. You can skip stop bath completely if you have longer development times ( you can pick the more diluted developer and longer times ).

Acros is really about 50 to 64. If you shoot at 100 and develop for that, you'll end up with way too much contrast and not enough shadow detail much of the time. To boost contrast, rate at 100 or even 200 - then develop accordingly. To get a nice, long scale out of it, shoot at 50-64 and pull one stop in development with most developers. I rate Acros at 200 for night shots and then push develop with great results, however for day shooting, 64 works out really well for me.

Ilford's DDX developer really works well for pushing as well as pulling a stop, and grain is still fine. XTOL works too, as does D76 and even Rodinal. Rodinal gives nice mid-skin tone type grays with a bit more grain. I think just about any developer works with it - try different ones to see what you like best. Watch out for temperature and development times - Acros builds up density in a real hurry - it responds VERY well to development controls.

I second TF4 fixer. Also, you can do a 30-60 second pre-wash in your Jobo before processing - then all the dyes in the film will be gone by the end of your fixing or
at least by part-way through your final wash.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ed K.

Acros is really about 50 to 64. If you shoot at 100 and develop for that, you'll end up with way too much contrast and not enough shadow detail much of the time. To boost contrast, rate at 100 or even 200 - then develop accordingly. To get a nice, long scale out of it, shoot at 50-64 and pull one stop in development with most developers. I rate Acros at 200 for night shots and then push develop with great results, however for day shooting, 64 works out really well for me.

Watch out for temperature and development times - Acros builds up density in a real hurry - it responds VERY well to development controls.

I second TF4 fixer. Also, you can do a 30-60 second pre-wash in your Jobo before processing - then all the dyes in the film will be gone by the end of your fixing or
at least by part-way through your final wash.

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Thanks. I thought I would start with D76 as this seems to be a standard developer.

You mention TF4 fixer...is this Tetenal? I have access to Tetenal Superfix (odourless) fixer. Is this ok?

When you say 'Acros builds up density quickly' do you mean I should be aiming for shorter development times?

Could you also clarify 'ISO rating of 64 and pulling one stop' If I rate the film at ISO 100, should I still pull one stop in development?

Apologies for so many newbie questionss...:)

I rate Acros at 80 and develop either in D76 @ 68F 1:3 for 10 minutes, agitating once a minute or Pyrocat HD @70F 1:1:100 for 10 minutes, agitating every 30 seconds. I like Acros because I get the same speed with both developers and can decide on the developer later, depending on whether I want to enlarge or contact print in Pt/Pd.

I use the Jobo tank with hand inversion, even though it's 1500 cc of liquid, and have always had good results. I use traditional stop bath and fixer from Kodak with the D76 and just water and T4 fixer with the Pyrocat.

David,
What about blown highlights with Acros? I've seen so many photos of this film with no detail at all in the highlights and this looks terrible with landscapes (which is soley what I am shooting).

Any way to control the blown highlights, in using either developer you mentioned?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sung

Thanks. I thought I would start with D76 as this seems to be a standard developer.

You mention TF4 fixer...is this Tetenal? I have access to Tetenal Superfix (odourless) fixer. Is this ok?

When you say 'Acros builds up density quickly' do you mean I should be aiming for shorter development times?

Could you also clarify 'ISO rating of 64 and pulling one stop' If I rate the film at ISO 100, should I still pull one stop in development?

Apologies for so many newbie questionss...:)

---

D76, is good, but XTOL is somewhat better. It is less toxic and easier to mix.

This is the link to Photographers Formulary, they sell TF4 fixer:

http://www.photoformulary.com/Deskto...ion=0&langId=0

Acros, is somewhat more sensitive to development time than some other films; so a higher dilution of developer will help to reduce errors in development.

Most films, are only as light sensitive as their rated ISO, 100 for Acros, in a speed increasing developer. (You should read Anchell and Troup, The film Developing Cookbook) Therefore to get sufficient shadow detail many people shoot Acros, and other films at less than their rated ISO, say 50 or 64 or 80 for Acros.

You should test to see what film speed you get under your particular conditions. Your light meter, how you adgitate the film, developer, etc. will determine what speed you can actually achieve with the film you are using.

Blown highlights result from overexposure or overdevelopment, usually overdevelopment. You should read Ansel Adams book The negative.

Searching will reveal a lot of information in the archives here. For example, try this post along with the linked thread it includes:

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...56&postcount=2

The EI of 125 was determined using a Zone VI-modified Pentax digital spot meter and a calibrated densitometer to establish 0.1 above B+F .

In my experience, using the dilute Perceptol and protocols I described, Acros doesn't start to "take off" until at least Zone IX. If you're dealing with a scene that has significant detail up there, burning in may be necessary, but there will be lots of separation on the negative. I've not encountered many front-lit landscapes which have that much range, discounting specular highlights on water. Even fresh clouds rarely get above IX.

I regularly expose Acros at 100 ISO and dev for 8.5 mins in DDX, 1:4 @ 20°C.

Great range, great contrast, great prints.

I've been using Acros for several years now and see no need to downgrade the asa at all.
that is a fallacy and my prints will prove it. just shoot at 100 and use rodinal 1:100 in a
rotary proccessor. I'm doing this for 10:20@75 degrees. works every time. this puts my negatives right on a grade 3 curve. this is the film that tmax100 was supposed to be!!
truth be told with all the great developers out there such as pyrocat or xtol or even rodinal the speed can be maintained. if patterson ever comes back with accutol then the speed would probably increase. but there is ddx and I'm surmising that it would give a speed increase....
Best, Peter

I use this film in DDX and rate it at 200 ( based on my meter ) using a Jobo 3010 Expert tank.

The only way to dial in the correct speed for you is to do testing with your meter, developer and developing method. If you don't, then it is just a guess at best.

I think this is great film and you should be happy with it.

It's really important to consider the ultimate printing process one will use while you're deciding developers and times. For scanning, you don't need a lot of contrast, but for alt-process prints, you do. And certainly, the scene matters too. This is why you'll find no precise answers that will suite your needs, only some guidelines and comments from others concerning what they like.

What I mean about Acros building up density quickly is that it will give you jet-black areas in your negatives (read "blown highlights") as well as high contrast overall if you over develop it for your scene. I have found that to get good shadow detail on scenes that have a wide dynamic range (such as days with nice puffy clouds), I have to pull process it to have good mid tones and shadows. The times I have overdeveloped it, I had negatives that would only print right on grade 00 paper (Centennial POP) - of course that was a good discovery, because I like Centennial POP! It seems to get more density than most of the Kodak films with ease. Without pulling it a bit, I always had shots that lacked enough middle gray tones for the subjects I shoot.

But some folks LOVE a lot of contrast, and their shooting style takes good advantage of that.

I think that there are no 100% correct answers anyone can give you other than perhaps the data sheets posted at Fuji's site, and naturally, the experiments you do to find what is best for you. Acros makes it easy to get an image, as most B&W films do. Getting the image you like best could mean following directions, or, as in my case, it could mean deviating a bit from the norm to suit one's circumstances, which oddly enough, is the "normal" workflow and magic of B&W work.

Acros is a great film - go out and enjoy it!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ed K.

It's really important to consider the ultimate printing process one will use while you're deciding developers and times.

What I mean about Acros building up density quickly is that it will give you jet-black areas in your negatives (read "blown highlights") as well as high contrast overall if you over develop it for your scene. I have found that to get good shadow detail on scenes that have a wide dynamic range (such as days with nice puffy clouds), I have to pull process it to have good mid tones and shadows. The times I have overdeveloped it, I had negatives that would only print right on grade 00 paper (Centennial POP) - of course that was a good discovery, because I like Centennial POP! It seems to get more density than most of the Kodak films with ease. Without pulling it a bit, I always had shots that lacked enough middle gray tones for the subjects I shoot.

But some folks LOVE a lot of contrast, and their shooting style takes good advantage of that.

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My only concern with Acros is that all the images I have seen show a lot of high contrast, where highlights have no detail at all. As I am scanning the neg, I prefer to tweak Curves in Photoshop so if I could find the right developer and processing time which will create a 'flatter' negative with less contrast, this would suit my purposes.

Based on everyone's comments, it seems a lot of experimenting is needed to get me there. This may sway me to try my hand at processing slides instead, Provia 100, which scans well, and so I can use the Channel options in Photoshop to tweak the image to B&W and perhaps have more control.

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I really appreciate it.

Sung

Based on my own, admittedly amateurish, attempts at E6 processing I'd stick to B&W if I were you! Try Acros with a "Pyro" type developer (Pyrocat HD, Prescysol, etc) using semi-stand development and you wont have any problems with contrast when scanning. I also find that Acros scans well when developed in Xtol.

David Whistance

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sung

David,
What about blown highlights with Acros? I've seen so many photos of this film with no detail at all in the highlights and this looks terrible with landscapes (which is soley what I am shooting).

Any way to control the blown highlights, in using either developer you mentioned?

---

Sorry, I've been busy the past few days. With D76 I dilute 1:3 and agitate only 5 inversions at the beginning, and then 3 inversions on the minute. With Pyrocat HD I agitate for the full first minute, then 3 inversions every 30 seconds. I've done big N-minuses in D76, but with Pyrocat HD I am not so careful, since I am usually aiming at PT/PD printing. But even so, only rarely have I had a negative with blown highlights. In fact I've had good luck enlarging from Pyrocat negatives.

Of course, for less contrast, I like HP5 too. Acros is just so damn convenient. You never have to worry about reciprocity corrections. And, as I said, I get the same speed (80) for both of the developers I use -- not the case with HP5 or FP4. With the latter films I have to decide how I'm going to develop and print before I take the shot, and I've screwed up a few times. I like the Quickloads, despite the expense, since I can always have film ready to go.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sung

My only concern with Acros is that all the images I have seen show a lot of high contrast, where highlights have no detail at all. As I am scanning the neg, I prefer to tweak Curves in Photoshop so if I could find the right developer and processing time which will create a 'flatter' negative with less contrast, this would suit my purposes.

Based on everyone's comments, it seems a lot of experimenting is needed to get me there. This may sway me to try my hand at processing slides instead, Provia 100, which scans well, and so I can use the Channel options in Photoshop to tweak the image to B&W and perhaps have more control.

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I really appreciate it.

Sung

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I've gone to even lower D76 dilutions and even less agitation, with good results for high contrast scenes. For enlarging, I too like to start with a "flat" negative and build in the contrast by printing with higher filters on VC papers. I aim to have a good straight print with a #3 or 3.5 filter.