Has anyone here shot Atomic-X, the sheet film from New55 that isn't instant, and used something other than the New55 Monobath developer to process it? I bought a box of it and want to try it out. I'd love to get any feedback on best EI, and developer/time/temp to use. My preferred developer is Pyrocat HD but I'm open to Rodinal as an alternative. If nobody has used either of these with it, let me know what you have used and I can try to extrapolate from there.
There is always the fall back of stand developing in Rodinal, It probably won't get the best from the negative but you'll get something scan-able. If wet printing maybe not.
if New55 would fess up and say outright what it is/who makes it , you would have a better chance of finding out the right developers. But they are playing coy about that.
I got an email back from them about their recommendations- they said "You can take development times for Tri-X as a guideline for developing AtomicX. At the moment we dont have specific times for AtomicX. Please let us know what your results are. You will help us and the film community with this information".
If you want to find out the development times and film speeds, do a BTZS test with Fred Newman at the View Camera Store. You can take his results to the bank.
I've been using the times for Plus-X and getting good results.
They said it's made by the "Shenbei Factory in China which manufactures X-ray, photographic, and roll films for industrial and consumer markets." in an April 20, 2015 press release that was on their web site at one time (it may still be there for all I know, I snagged a copy at the time and that's what I'm referring to). I think the Shenbei factory produces Shanghai film, but this could differ from the consumer emulsions.Originally Posted by EdSawyer
Steve, thanks for the good detective work. They should just come out and say that more clearly, I think. They usually dodge the question.
Years ago I learned the method to find the correct developing time and EI for any film. I think the source was William Mortensen. Mortensen wrote some excellent books and articles about basic sensitometry. The last time I did this test was when I abandoned Tri-X and switched to HP5+ due to cost about five years ago. I proceed as follows.
I set up my trays with my favorite developer HC110B (1:31). I pull out a sheet from the package in the dark. and then when the package is sealed again I turn on the room lights. This part of the test is done under the lights. I cut the sheet into five strips and mark them 1-5 by punching holes with a paper punch. Lets say the recommended time is 5:00. I want to see 3:00, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00 and 7:00, so I throw all the strips into the developer and agitate as usual until 3:00 when I move the No.1 strip over to the stop bath. Then I pull No.2 at 4:00, No.3 at 5:00, etc. I fix, wash and dry the strips as usual. What we are looking for is the best usable film DMax value. Obviously the film has been fully exposed! When strips dry lay down a page of news print on a table in good light. Find the strip through which the news print is barely visible. That's your developing time. Now to find the film speed.
Go outside in unchanging light conditions and expose five sheets and expose one at the manufacturers rating and then the other four at one half a stop and one stop less and one half a stop and one stop more. In the dark, develop them all together for your newly derived time. Contact print them together exposing and developing the paper for maximum usable paper DMax value. Pick out the best-looking contact print and you have your film speed.
Because my 7:00 negative looked the best on the first test, I did the test again with 7:00 as the central developing time and found that 8:00 was indeed too dense. This HP5+ time was the same as the as the developing time I had been using for Tri-X.
Many of the last generation of B&W gurus favored a development time of 5:00 for Tri-X and suggested an EI of 64-100. You can do the above test backwards, developing for 5:00 minutes and finding the film speed. I like 100. The difference between negatives exposed at 100 and developed for 5:00 is quite subtle. Both could be considered "normal" or N negatives. The 100 negative has slightly greater shadow and highlight detail that only a careful, knowledgeable viewer could detect. This slight improvement might not be worthwhile trading for two stops in the field.
From here, if you are still with me, you can derive expansion and contraction schemes for both the 100 and 400 "normal negs". I do this by changing dilution rather than time. Make sure you have at least 1 oz. of the concentrated sauce for each 8X10 sheet or equivalent. For expansion I found that 3/4 oz. concentrate to 31 1/4 ozs. H20 yields an N-1 neg at a one stop loss in film speed and 1/2 oz. concentrate to 31 1/2 ozs. H20 yields an N-2 neg at a two stop loss in film speed. For contractions, 1 1/4 oz. of concentrate to 30 3/4 ozs. H20 yields an N+1 neg at a one stop gain in speed and 1 1/2 ozs. concentrate to 30 1/2 ozs. H20 produces an N+2 negative with a two stop gain in speed.
If you look at the chart of Tri-X film speed in Phil Davis' BTZS book you can easily pick out the film speed in HC110B 5:00 as EI 64.
No we have not. It is a custom order from the factory we said, and it is specific to New55 instant. Since it is similar (in speed, processing and look) to a famous Kodak emulsion, we playfully named it Atomic-X and offered some at a bargain price. To process this emulsion, place the lever in the P position and withdraw the sleeve from the holder. Then wait the time mentioned on the box. Like old T55, the negative could be processed separately, but the parameters are up to you.
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