[Leica] watered drinks

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 1:46 PM -0700 7/31/07, pmcc wrote:
>I'm dimly aware of an issue that arises when using
>Xtol in dilutions greater than 1:1, namely, that there
>is a minimum quantity of stock solution *before
>dilution* necessary to develop a standard 35mm roll of
>film.  I think of it this way:  if a bartender waters
>the drinks, you will need to drink a greater volume of
>the diluted drinks in order to ingest the same
>quantity of alcohol.  While you can use extended
>development time to compensate for higher dilutions
>when using Rodinal, can you do the same when using
>Xtol, or do you reach some kind of absolute limit when
>using Xtol, or minimum quantity of stock solution to
>achieve successful development?  Seems to me there
>comes a point where the drinks are so weak that you'd
>have to urinate yourself to death before achieving any
>degree of inebriation.
>
>Can anyone shed more light on this when using higher
>dilutions -- e.g., 1:2 and 1:3 -- of Xtol?
>
>Peter.
>SF, CA

Delta 100 and HP5+ seem to be OK with 70ml of stock for 36exp rolls 
when used with my filtered, quite soft water. That makes it fine for 
1:3 when putting 7 rolls in an 8 roll Nikor tank. That gives me Delta 
100 at EI of 200, and HP5+ at EI 800. If I use 1:2 or a greater 
amount of stock per roll, I have more problems with highlights 
blocking up and I can't leave the film in the developer to bring the 
shadow density up, so I can't get as much speed out of the film. So: 
I use the minimum amount of stock solution that will develop the film 
fully (to my taste) in the highlights, but not so much that it will 
block them, and that way I can let the film sit in the developer for 
the last couple of minutes to cook the shadows more. 1:3 gives the 
sharpest grain as well.

Tri-X needs somewhat less stock solution; probably about 55ml per 
36exp in my water (water composition definitely has an effect on Xtol 
performance).

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