forte fotrepan 200 in rodinol @ 10 min 68deg too light.

[Darin Cozine]

I've just developed a few test sheets of forte fortepan 200 sheet film. I used rodinal 1:50 @ 10 minutes in 68degree water. The negative appears underexposed by about 2 stops.
I metered at iso 200.

Can I develop the film at N+2 or will that create too much grain?

[Donald Miller]

If the film is underexposed then overdeveloping is going to increase grain and contrast. The answer is to determine the EI that the film exposes in your system of meter, lens etc.

Underexposure also affects the density range of the negative...hence thin negatives.

[Darin Cozine]

well, I'm thinking that my metering and lens/shutter are correct, especially since my slides of monterey came back just fine. I pulled the developing times off digitaltruth. I think I will try increasing the dev time first.. I will let everyone know what I come up with (if anyone cares)

[Michael Dowdall]

What ei were you exposing at? I've been useing Fortepan 200 for a couple of years but havn't developed it in Rodinal. The asa of 200 is wishfull thinking imo. In PMK and HC110/B, ei's of 80 and 125 have worked for me.

[Don Cameron]

You can develop untill hell freezes over and they will still be thin. Exposure sets the shadows, and development sets the highs.

Quite obviously the film is not 200asa., but more like Michaels speed of 80?

Test it at the slower asa, and see.

www.doncameron.com

[Bob._3906]

FWIW, here is a link to the Forte site which suggests Rodinal 1:25 @ 6 mins @ 20C @ ISO 200

http://www.forte-photo.net/e/sf200.htm

Cheers,

[tim o'brien]

Ignore what all these people are telling you. I think you should shoot the next batch at E.I.200 and develop +2. Then when your shadow detail is still MIA and your highlights are unprintable, you can come back to this thread and re-read what others have told you.

Experience is the absolute best teacher.

tim in san jose

[Darin Cozine]

Michael, I think you are right in your EI. I was using iso 200 I am going to experiment with a few different exposures/developments. I will make sure to report back.

[Bulent Ozgoren]

I have been experimenting with this film in 4x5" and here are the results: For Normal development for silver printing with Aristo Cold Light Head V54 EI 160, with Pentax digital spotmeter, when developed in Pyrocat-HD 10:10:1000 68F 9 minutes with Jobo Expert Drum rotary constant agitation. I hope this helps.