Ive always used tri-x 320 and was wondering about other films, have any of you found a really sharp 100 speed film for 8x10? ilford?
Ive always used tri-x 320 and was wondering about other films, have any of you found a really sharp 100 speed film for 8x10? ilford?
In practical terms, most 8x10 100 speed film are sharp, and can be more smooth or more sharp depending upon development assuming proper camera work. In non-techno terms, most of the 100 films seem to do about all the sharpness the image has for typical prints anyway. To get really sharp and really smooth fine grain try Efke 25 if you don't mind the way it renders colors.
How big are you planning on printing?
In addition to Efke 25, Ilford Delta 100, Kodak Tmax 100, and Ilford FP4+ would all be finer-grained than Tri-X. But, perceived sharpness may be another matter. Developer choice also plays a role, as does the enlargement factor, as Ed mentioned. If you're making contact prints, the differences will be less obvious than if you're making BIG prints.
In the final analysis, it's really a matter of personal choice. The only way to tell "fer shur" is to try different film/developer combinations, and see what you like.
For landscapes and portraits, the ability to use a shorter shutter speed may create sharper images even though your faster film is not as quite as sharp in studio tests.
whats a very sharp grain developer?
My choice over a very lonbg period of time has been Rodinal. For highest accutance (sharpness) you will want to dillute it 1:25 but I generally find that 1:50 renders excellent sharpness and smoothness ... as Ed was referring to. Many here use a variety of pyro formulas and will weigh in.
Dano - your question is pretty loaded and perhaps not clear. There will be people who can correctly explain the difference between accutance and sharpness in general, and a bunch of probably correct, but very technical information, plus perhaps some arugments.
Essentially, at the same true film speed, some developers soften the look of the grain and some allow it to have its rough edges. Some techniques even using the same developer can create more local contrast, which looks like sharpness, and so on.
Rodinal and Neofin Blau are a couple of the more sharp and at times more grain revealing developers. There are others. Your agitation techniques may matter as will even the lighting conditions. Apparent sharpness is related to contrast a lot of the time. Pyrocat HD is quite sharp too, but then you didn't mention how you intend upon printing - this will make a big difference in selecting what works best. In other words, I agree with what Ted said too. There are tons of developers that make good sharpness on 100 film though.
Look for accutance developers to try and search for edge effects and so on as opposed to solvent developers and fine grain techniques. There is a lot of Goggle-able material on the subject set, even here.
Personally, I like less grain and more sharpness, so I use the slowest film my subject allows much of the time. However Frank has a good point too - if the subject isn't holding still slow speed film isn't too good unless one has a flash or a lot of light to work with.
What sort of subject are you shooting? And how will you print your images?
For overall sharpness, I think development and technique go together. I shoot with Ilford HP5. That may not be as smooth and creamy as the other films, but here is an example of how this film, developed in Pyrocat HD, 1:1:200, with semi-stand development looks. I gave the film 21 minutes of development, with brisk agitation every 7 minutes. Apparently, it was TOO brisk, because I got some hanger marks on the upper edge. I've since gone to sloshers and don't get that any more. But this negative was already scanned, so I'm using it anyway.
The contact print with an arrow pointing to the part I cropped out:
[IMG][/IMG]
A very small snippet, greatly enlarged in Photoshop, of the white sign on the bridge:
[IMG][/IMG]
While Rodinal and Neofin may be high accutance developers, you can also dilute a "standard" developer to make it higher in accuatnce. For example, I shoot HP5 and develop in D-76 diluted 1:1. Diluting a developer gives higher accutance. Some people even dilute D-76 or ID-11 1:3 for even higher accutance, although manufactuers don't necessarily recomend this. So when combining a higher grained film (400) and a higher accuatance developer, my images are nice and crisp. But like was already said, enlargement size is a huge factor. If you're not enlarging very much, you might not even see any differnce in different film/dev. combinations. I'm only printing up to 11x14 from 4x5.
What I'm getting at is that by simply changing dilution of your developer, you can toy around with creating different effects, and the advantage is D-76 and ID-11 are very friendly developers, especially for beginners, as they are not fussy.
the big question is, are you making contact prints or enlargements ... and if the latter, how big?
sharpness is a subjective quality, and it's always size/viewing distance dependent.
counterintuitively, you might get sharper looking contact prints with faster, grainier film, and a developer that either promotes edgy grain or image edge effects.
prints look sharpest when they have a lot of contrast in the 1 to 5 lp/mm range. for film, this is a very low resolution. all of the amazing mtf performance of a film like tmax 100 will be manifested in detail that's literally microscopic in a contact print.
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