Andrew O'Neill
6-Oct-2003, 18:21
After reading what Mr. Weese had to say about recent batches of HP5+ and it's lower fb+f and milder shoulder, I decided it was time to get out the densitometre and have a closer look for myself. I process in Xtol 1+1 and 1+3 and fb+f ranged from .12 to .18. With the newer HP5+ in Xtol 1+1 I got a fb+f range of .09 to .12. Significantly lower. That explains why my film looked thinner than usual before I read Mr. Weese's topic. The film curve in Xtol 1+1 is also a little bit staighter than older HP5+. I never really noticed a shoulder in HP5+ before but more of a slight hump at around zone v with curve continuing in straight up through zone XII. After that I have no idea what the curve looks like. There still is a slight hump but it is only slight and appears to start at zone V. Curve is straight after that. I know it depends on developer used. I used to use PMK and that introduced a big shoulder. Other than that it's still the same great film it's always been. I'm conducting some more tests in Neofin Blue at different dilutions and also Xtol/Rodinal mixtures. I'll keep you posted. Hope I made sense.