This film has been around for quite a few years, with a recent revision when Kodak moved its production to a new factory, here is a picture I took in 1985 on the original Plus -x
Kodak Plus-x, Canon F1n 50mm F1.2L
Plus -x always gave me a long tonal range, high acutance and fine-medium grain and what's more was very tolerant of different developer combinations.
So I shot off a roll, and processed it in Rodinal for 13 mins at 1:50, taking the times from The Digitaltruth massive dev chart.
One thing I can categorically state is that when they 'updated' this emulsion they really changed it!
The massive dev chart times are based upon the previous emulsion, the result being overdevelopment of the film resulting in very heavy negatives with high contrast.
If you are scanning then it's very hard to get decent results, printing on conventional B&W paper you'll need grade 1-2 to give OK results. I tried very hard to get back the white fence in the background.
So in with another test roll, I rated this at the same ISO but this time after much evaluation decided on a Dev time of 15 mins at 1:100 dilution in Rodinal.
Much better results, especially for scanning. Note white dog!
Now with the new time the tonal range is smoother, gone is the excessive contrast and the grain seems finer too!
So all in all a very good film, reasonably fine grained with a good tonal range, on balance I think the previous version of this film had better acutance and was a better emulsion overall.
Watch out for high contrast subjects, this film would be a good choice for studio portraits, suggested dev times are way off.
Next: Gigabitfilm All Images and text ©Mark Antony Smith 2007
1 comment:
I am working my way through 200ft of Plus-X pan, I almost always use D-76 1+1 nice and sharp and great tones.
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