Single B&W emulsion for learning in 4X5

[Carl Harrison]

Agfa 100 in Rodinal 1:50 64 asa works good for me, but Tri-x is good as well.

Freestyle was one of, if not my favorite place to browse and buy film and chemistry. Since I live in the east I only get out there to see family in L.A. a couple of times a year. I don't know when they changed but the last time I went in there, last August, I was surprised as to how much paper, chemistry, equipment that they no longer have on display or in their catologe, really scaled down. Almost looked like they were going out of business the day I was there.

Funny that someone mentioned pallets of photo materials sitting in the sun, I have noticed this many times and have wondered about it.

[Oren Grad]

Russell -

4x5 Tri-X (TXT) is NOT the same as 35mm Tri-X (TX). The sensitometric characteristics are wildly different - 35mm TX is a very forgiving film, with a gentle shoulder (i.e., moderate highlight contrast) while 4x5 Tri-X (TXT) has steep highlight contrast which can be very hard to handle.

If you like 35mm TX, I would recommend HP5 Plus in 4x5. It's not exactly the same in tonality or overall "look", but it is robust and forgiving, delivers a full-information negative with ease under virtually any lighting, and is capable of making beautiful pictures. It can look a bit gritty under some circumstances, though. The closest tonal match to 35mm TX among Kodak sheet films is probably T- Max 100 developed in D-76. But it's quite a bit more finicky in exposure and development than is TX, and in my experience doesn't deliver full shadow detail as reliably.

Good luck...

[Steve Feldman]

My preference is Agfa 100 4x5 dev. in HC-110 dil. B. I have used it for many years in 35mm and 120. I dev a little differently than most. Caveat, "What works for me may not work for you".

1 oz. HC-110 concentrate in 15.5 oz. water (tap) @ 68 degress (Dil. B)

I load 1 or 2 sheets into a Unicolor print dev. tank (it can hold 4, double the volume of dev if you do.) Now your in room ligt for the rest of the time.

Fill with 68 deg water w/ 1 drop of photoflo pree soak for 1 min. while running on Unicolor motor base. This helps stabilize the tube to 68 deg.

Develope using the motor base for 7 min. (N) Rinse and fix as usual.

The results are 100% perfectly devloped negs. No streaks, marks, pin holes, air bells.

Good shootig.

-S.F.

[Steve Feldman]

OOPS!! Re-checked my graduate marking.

NOT 1 OZ.

IT"S 1/2 OZ>

Sorry

[floren de la rama]

I also use FP4+ and find it very peachy. However, I'm starting to use HP5+ because of the speed and I like it in the other formats. I'm trying to decide whether or not to ditch the FP4 for the faster film. I like the look of FP4. My prints are 5x max, I'm not how HP5 would handle this. It's nice to see other people shooting large format with EI of 100 or less.

Cheerio