film developer: I was a bit lazy ...

[gliderbee]

I was trying a "new-to-me" (well, more or less, I have it quite some time already, but never used it) 4x5 camera, and since I was too lazy and too cheapskate to use the necessary amount of Xtol, I developed it in Ilford Multigrade paper developer 1:20, in a tray for 3 minutes. Here's the result attached; I'm quite pleased with it. The scan is a straight scan with Epson V700 on A4 format, jpeg 90, so it could be a lot better, I guess.

Seems to work fine, although maybe a bit too much contrast (but it is a very sunny day over here right now) :-).



Stefan.

[Jim Jones]

Paper developer has long been used for film where development speed and boosted contrast were more important than fine grain. I routinely used Tech Pan film developed in the Polymax developer always available for paper where high contrast was desired.

[ic-racer]

It is nice to see the whole negative on a scan, including the rebate. On my monitor your negative comes out as a positive. When I switch it back it looks underexposed and over developed.

[gliderbee]

It is nice to see the whole negative on a scan, including the rebate. On my monitor your negative comes out as a positive. When I switch it back it looks underexposed and over developed.

I posted it as a positive.

Here's the best scan I can make as a negative (I'm not very good with scanners):

Full picture, scanned at 200 dpi:


and here's a detail out of the background scanned at 6400dpi (traffic sign) :


Doesn't seem bad to me (certainly not regarding grain) but on the negative, with a loupe, I can easily read the street name (a bit to the left of the traffic sign, at the same height, centered under the house, is a small plate with the street name, hardly visible on the full negative scan; it's razor sharp). I suppose I'm at the limits of my scanner here.
I'll try to enlarge it wet printing and scan that.
All this is with a humble Kodak Ektar 127mm lens.

My English is failing me: what's the "rebate" ?

Stefan.

[polyglot]

The rebate (in this context) is the bit of film around the edge with no image on it. Often has the emulsion details printed into it at the factory.

[gliderbee]

The rebate (in this context) is the bit of film around the edge with no image on it. Often has the emulsion details printed into it at the factory.

Thank you! Your nickname is well chosen