Resuming after a long interval classes in black and white photography, I began to use film Agfapan APX as their primary emulsion. Images obtained after developing in Rodinale quite satisfy me in technical terms. However, in an age of universal digitalisation is unwise to be dependent on a single variety of the film, and I began to look for a reasonable alternative to black and white APX. In essence, the problem was this: you are searching film, which, after developing in Rodinale will get the negatives that are comparable in quality to Agfapan APX.
His quest I started with photographs of the legendary firm ILFORD. Make no claim to comprehensiveness of his research, I decided to expose the experiment two kinds of film: the budget ILFORD PAN 100 and top film ILFORD DELTA Pro 100. This small paper is a brief report, reflecting only my personal subjective opinion.
“Very bare” facts
Film ILFORD DELTA Pro 100 is a professional fine-grained film, “ideal for art photography” (quote from Ilford Fact Sheet). This high-quality photographic material was created on the basis of modern emulsions. It is widely believed that Rodinal is not very suitable for films with a new type of emulsion (ILFORD DELTA, Kodak T-Max). Well aware of this, I still decided to experiment. I was just interested to make sure all yourself. I will also note that in Moscow the cost of this film at least twice the cost of PAN 100.
Film ILFORD PAN 100 is positioned as the company ILFORD photographic material, intended for “fine-grained images with high sharpness and excellent halftones” (quote from Ilford Fact Sheet). This type of film is designed to implement only a few countries. In all likelihood, with the help of such an approach seeks to oust the company ILFORD relatively cheap film from other manufacturers with the photo market, are attracted to the budgetary decisions.
Film Agfapan APX Pro 100, on assurances of the manufacturer, is a high-quality professional photographic materials. Like other professional materials from Agfa, this film is characterized by “optimal halftones, balanced contrast, excellent resolution of detail in highlights and shadows, exceptional sharpness and fineness” (quote from the Technical Data). For this film Rodinal is one of the recommended developer.
As can be seen from the above quotations, traditional advertising phrases hardly allow to judge about the real properties of photographic materials. Therefore, the surest approach – to form your own opinion on the basis of the experiment.
Test conditions
All the above films were shown at face value (ISO 100). For the survey was used camera Pentax MZ-6 with the lens Pentah FA 50/1.4.
After exposure, films were manifested in Rodinale, diluted in a ratio of 1 +25. It should be noted that the instructions for film development ILFORD PAN 100, printed inside the packaging box, do not coincide with the information published on this site www.ilford.com. In response to a written request directed to the company Ilford, I received a reply, which contained a recommendation to use the data placed on the site. That’s what I did.
To fix the films was used domestic acidic fixer Mendeleev chemical plant them.Karpov.
Processed film was selectively printed and scanned on a film-scanner with a resolution of 2820 dpi.
Subjective judgments
Fig. 1 shows fragments of the scanned images in 1:1 scale. (At screen resolution of 72 dpi, we may assume that we see a tiny fraction of photos, full size is equal to 1,8 x 2,8 meters) All the fragments shows a piece of cloudy skies.
Fig. 1 Rating grits (Film development: “Rodinal 1 +25″)
Under these conditions, manifestations of all the films showed about the same level of granularity. But a film ILFORD DELTA grain was somewhat more explicit (ie, landmark).
Images were obtained on films ILFORD little more contrasting. However, quite possibly, the contrast would be less with less long-term manifestation. Unfortunately, the company ILFORD did not mention in their documentation, what contrast ratio consistent with the recommended time of her manifestations.
All the films have coped well with a harmonious transfer of shades of gray. But first place in this parameter, I would have awarded the film Agfapan. On the negatives ILFORD DELTA tonal transitions have turned the least expressive (perhaps this is due to the above-mentioned high-contrast).
The most severe (sharp edges) was film ILFORD DELTA. In my view, a manifestation of Rodinale no effect on rezkostnyh characteristics of the emulsion. Negatives have turned so sharply that the further computer image processing took more moderate and accurate application of the filter Unsharp Mask.
Photos and subjective findings
Well aware that the web-format photographs are very far from the real picture, I decided to put here a few illustrations. For him, of course, impossible to judge the mikrokontraste, sharp edges and grit of the photographs. But some very general idea of the nature of imagery is still possible to get.
November. Moscow. Forest Park. ILFORD DELTA 100.
Nothing at horrific film development in ILFORD DELTA Rodinale not happen.Sharpness completely damaged. However, to achieve a special fine grain and high-quality transmission of halftone preferably still show this film in the recommended developer.
November. Moscow. Yauzskiy Blvd. ILFORD PAN 100.
Film ILFORD PAN I would describe as a good, versatile and inexpensive solution. It has more than stood the test of developing in a Rodinale. Subjectively, this film is perceived as more “rigid” compared with Agfapan APX. At the same time, it essentially “softer” film ILFORD DELTA.
October. Moscow. First snow. Gogol Boulevard. Agfapan APX 100.
In my opinion, the film Agfapan APX 100 for film development in Rodinale very well the half-tones and gives quite acceptable results for the grits. In sharp edges, it gives the film ILFORD DELTA, but not so much that it is clearly apparent when viewing the photos with the normal range.
A few concluding lines
It is important to understand that I am not trying to conduct a comprehensive comparison of the films mentioned on ILFORD neither between themselves nor with the film, produced by Agfa. Carrying out this test at least I would have to conduct surveys of the same objects with the same light, as well as for the developer to use different types of developers. Conducting such research does not in my plans.
The result of the tests are only a few subjective thoughts. To treat them have not as a final truth, but as a starting point for your own research and experiments….