A49 for Deltas and Tmäe, A49 for push processing

Olivinyl · 2013-08-14T19:45:41+00:00

Hallo zusammen, Ich habe bis jetzt Xtol 1+1 für 100er Tmaxe im KB Format benutzt. Ich bin mit der Kombi sehr zufrieden. Tolle Schärfe und extrem kleines, fe...

Olivinyl

Hello everyone, Up until now, I’ve been using Xtol 1+1 for 100 ISO T-Max in 35mm format. I’m very happy with this combination. Great sharpness and an extremely fine grain. For classic emulsions, I occasionally use Rodinal 1+50, but also Xtol 1+1 or 1+2 if I want a finer grain. I only bought A49 to ‘flatten’ the density curve of aerial films, which works brilliantly, and I now also use A49 1+1 for classic emulsions to keep the grain fine (i.e. for the same purpose as Xtol) and am absolutely satisfied with the sharpness and grain compared to Xtol. I haven’t really noticed any “mushy grain” with A49 in my prints up to 20x30, and the sharpness was perfectly acceptable. Now one of them has to go! My question:

How does A49 perform for flat-crystal films compared to Xtol?
What are the pushing characteristics of A49 like?

Best regards, Oliver

Morte

Apart from the flat-crystal films, with which I have no experience, I (and many others who can and do so, see Google) can attest to the A49 having excellent push and pull characteristics. Using the formula of 1.33 times the exposure time per f-stop (as stated in the instructions), I achieve very good results. That is why some say it is also well suited to zone development. Fine by me. I can’t see why it should be any different with flat-crystal films.

michael-kielgmxnet

I did a push test using A49 (the newer version called ADOX Atomal) at a 1+1 dilution with Kodak Tmax 400. These were just test shots, though, and I was mainly interested in how well they scanned. The results were more than acceptable at Push 1 and Push 2. Otherwise, I’ve already processed quite a few Tmax 400s ‘unpushed’ in Atomal – in my opinion, a great combination. The Tmax 100, however, comes out so with a fine grain that it almost looks digital (apologies for the comparison). I didn’t think much of the Delta 400; I wasn’t particularly impressed with the sharpness, but I don’t think it can really compete with the Tmax in general.