ilford delta 100 sheet film (kodak developer)?

[gary]

I'm taking my exposed film to one of two photo labs. Both cater to professionals.
Both use kodak chemistry. One d-76 the other X-tol. I'm looking for a smooth gray scale with the finest grain. Any feedback????



thanks
gary

[Oren Grad]

Much more important than whether they're using Xtol or D-76 is how well calibrated their developing times are, whether their agitation is up to snuff, how consistent they are, and how clean they are. To figure that out you're just going to need to send some test sheets to each one.

Back in the days when I occasionally sent B&W film out for processing, the film invariably came back overdeveloped, even at so-called professional labs. You might need to pay for pull-processing to get what you want, and even if they're consistent you might have to go back two or three times until you've figured out what instructions to give them to get the results you want.

[Dan Jolicoeur]

In addition to what Oren said; If you don't want to develop yourself it may be worth your while to do some testing with this lab and build a relationship with them. If they have a densitometer, which they very well should, ask them about doing some film speed and developing test with a step wedge.