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Steve_F
29th January 2010, 10:36 PM
Hi all,
I've been trying Fuji 100 Acros in a few developers; Perceptol; Rodinal and also Ilfosol 3. In the past I've always had great, easily print-able negs using Delta 100 in Perceptol and also Ilfosol 3.
All the Acros negs have a certain 'milky' feel to them. They just seem to lack the punch of the all Ilford combo. What I love about the Acros is the really fine grain and the prints I've managed to do (!) hold beautiful fine detail.

Any suggestions greatly received.

Thanks,

Steve.

PS - RIP my darkroom as I'm moving house and I don't know when it'll be up and running again :o

Jon Butler
29th January 2010, 11:12 PM
Give Pyrocat HD or Peter Hogan's Prescysol 'EF' a try, you will not be disappointed.
JON.

Argentum
30th January 2010, 07:47 AM
Hi all,
I've been trying Fuji 100 Acros in a few developers; Perceptol; Rodinal and also Ilfosol 3. In the past I've always had great, easily print-able negs using Delta 100 in Perceptol and also Ilfosol 3.
All the Acros negs have a certain 'milky' feel to them. They just seem to lack the punch of the all Ilford combo. What I love about the Acros is the really fine grain and the prints I've managed to do (!) hold beautiful fine detail.

Any suggestions greatly received.

Thanks,

Steve.

PS - RIP my darkroom as I'm moving house and I don't know when it'll be up and running again :o
Try a different brand of fixer.

Richard Gould
30th January 2010, 10:01 AM
Sounds like a fixer problem to me, from what youi discribe it sounds as if the film has not fixed properly leaving the film not cleared properly,try re-fixing in fresh fixer,Richard

bill spears
30th January 2010, 10:03 AM
I haven't used Acros very much Steve so probably not qualified to advise but on the few occaisions I did try it, I used good old ID11 1:1 or 1:2. Got engraving type sharpness with no grain. This was in 120 format and shot with a Rollei and Zeiss glass so I guess that helped a bit !!
I think Acros is a modern grain structure film, similar to Delta, Tmax etc ? Personally I find the very fine grain developers, Perceptol and all, give results that are are often too smooth with these emulsions but I stress thats my own taste.

Not exactly sure what Robs saying, but I beleive these modern emulsions need more thorough fixing in fresh fixer in order to clear ?

B&W Neil
30th January 2010, 10:15 AM
Hi all,
I've been trying Fuji 100 Acros in a few developers; Perceptol; Rodinal and also Ilfosol 3. In the past I've always had great, easily print-able negs using Delta 100 in Perceptol and also Ilfosol 3.
All the Acros negs have a certain 'milky' feel to them. They just seem to lack the punch of the all Ilford combo. What I love about the Acros is the really fine grain and the prints I've managed to do (!) hold beautiful fine detail.

Any suggestions greatly received.

Thanks,

Steve.

PS - RIP my darkroom as I'm moving house and I don't know when it'll be up and running again :o



Sounds like insufficient fixing to me. Prolong the fixer time and try to fix a leader clip from the film to determine the fixing time. Also check your fixer with a fixer test to make sure it is not exhausted!

Sorry to hear about the darkroom but hopefully its successor will not be too long in forthcoming :)

Neil.

Martin Aislabie
30th January 2010, 10:16 AM
I'm not quite sure what you mean by milky - but picking up on the others posts, I fix Acros as I would TMax ie twice as long as I do for conventional films.

Are you saying when you talk of lack of punch - that the negs lack contrast, if so then extra development time might help

Martin

Argentum
30th January 2010, 11:06 AM
I haven't used Acros very much Steve so probably not qualified to advise but on the few occaisions I did try it, I used good old ID11 1:1 or 1:2. Got engraving type sharpness with no grain. This was in 120 format and shot with a Rollei and Zeiss glass so I guess that helped a bit !!
I think Acros is a modern grain structure film, similar to Delta, Tmax etc ? Personally I find the very fine grain developers, Perceptol and all, give results that are are often too smooth with these emulsions but I stress thats my own taste.

Not exactly sure what Robs saying, but I beleive these modern emulsions need more thorough fixing in fresh fixer in order to clear ?

Acros is different from delta and tmax films. Fuji have their own technology which is different from T-grain. So I'm not sure how much fixing acros needs. But it does sound like a fixing problem.

Dave miller
30th January 2010, 11:34 AM
Acros is different from delta and tmax films. Fuji have their own technology which is different from T-grain. So I'm not sure how much fixing acros needs. But it does sound like a fixing problem.

The clip-test that Neil suggested should show if that's the case.

Trevor Crone
30th January 2010, 11:54 AM
I've had good results with Acros (4x5) in Rodinal, which I see you've used, so indeed could be a fixing problem.

Keith Tapscott.
30th January 2010, 01:27 PM
The old saying for fixing films is to use twice the clearing time, although for modern films and some of the conventional ISO 400 films which have a fairly high silver iodide content, it is usually safer to fix the film for three times the clearing time. The recommendations by the film or fixer manufacturers are usually very good and if they say 2-4 minutes or 3-5 minutes, I normally use the longest recommended time to make sure the film is fixed properly.
I have to say that film processing along with making contact-sheets, is not my favourite task. :(

Mike O'Pray
30th January 2010, 07:39 PM
I am not sure Steve is talking of milkiness in that sense. I may be talking out of my proverbial and if he is talking of poor fixer milkiness then I am:D: but my Acros negs of several months ago in DDX did look different to Ilford or even Fuji 400 negs.

I can't realy describe it but the negs looked "blander". Prints were fine however although with the same camera as for the Fuji 400 films I needed a higher contrast.

If you were a first time user of Acros and it sounds as if Steve is then I think you would find the negs to have a different look and maybe not one you'd expect.

The above sounds a bit numb and vague but I do recall thinking the negs looked different from what I had been used to.

Sorry about my description but I can't be any more precise. Its frustrating, I know. Dad to little Johnny: Can you help Daddy by showing him where you think you lost the keys?. Johnny between wails points his finger at the horizon and arcs his arm in a 180 degrees. Know the feeling? :D:

Mike

Steve_F
31st January 2010, 10:26 PM
Thanks for all the advice. Maybe it is something as simple as I'm not used to seeing those negs having used Ilford for 12-13 yrs. 'Blander' could be a fair description too.
I shall 'dip' part of a negative strip in fixer for a further 4 minutes and compare. (In between packing to move and an 8 week old that just won't settle during the evening.)
The original negs were fixed in Ilford's Rapid fixer for 4 mins.

Many thanks,

Steve.

wojtek
1st February 2010, 09:14 AM
Any suggestions greatly received.

13 minutes in XTOL 1:2 @ 20 deg C and you're finishing with great, nice, smooth but unbelievably sharp negative. :)

Acros is king! ;D

Roger Hicks
1st February 2010, 10:01 AM
Dear Steve,

I assume that you're not having fixing problems, because I think I know what you mean by the 'milky' look: as you say, no 'punch'. I know: I had to piddle around with all kinds of developers and dilutions before I got results from Acros that I regarded as at all pleasant.

Why not go back to Delta 100 (coarser grained but sharper) and try a fine-grain developer such as Perceptol? Or, of course, move to a larger format...

Incidentally, Delta is NOT the same T-grain technology as T-Max. It's rather cleverer, thanks to the epitaxial crystal growth, though both use flat, near-monosize crystals.

Cheers,

R.

Keith Tapscott.
1st February 2010, 05:38 PM
Dear Steve,

Why not go back to Delta 100 (coarser grained but sharper) and try a fine-grain developer such as Perceptol? Or, of course, move to a larger format...

Cheers,

R.I have dabbled with Ilford Delta 100 and Fuji 100 Acros and while I agree that the Fuji film has slightly less noticeable grain when using 35mm film, I find the difference between them not worth worrying about. On medium-format, both films along with Kodak T-Max 100 will produce extremely fine-grained enlargements.
These days, I just use films that I find aesthetically pleasing when enlarged rather than because of their technical qualities.

Steve_F
1st February 2010, 07:48 PM
Roger and Keith,
I have been using Delta 100 in Perceptol for some years, very very successfully. I won't use anything else in my RZ, the portraits are absolutely gorgeous, tonally superb and sooooo smooth.
I'd heard some great reviews about 100 Acros and just thought I'd have a dabble.
The irony is that as I'm moving house I came across general street prints I'd forgotten I had, taken on Delta 100 (35mm) in Perceptol and am now wondering why I even considered changing.

I have one print I'm particularly fond of for its tonal range of rich blacks to clean highlights. I was convinced it was taken on 100 TMax but when I looked at the neg sleeves I found they were developed in Delta 100 and developed in Perceptol @ 1:1. Answers my own question really doesn't it.
Just for the record it was printed on MG IV FB developed in Tetenal Eukobrom for 3 min.

Thanks to all the input. I will still trying the 'clearing' though.

Steve.

Stoo Batchelor
1st February 2010, 09:31 PM
Give Pyrocat HD or Peter Hogan's Prescysol 'EF' a try, you will not be disappointed.
JON.

I do not wish to disagree with Jon, but it is my experience that Fuji Acros and Prescysol EF are not a good combination. You will have to print to at least grade 4 1/2 to get a reasonable contrast to your print.(using a diffuser enlarger)

Best

Stoo

Argentum
1st February 2010, 10:56 PM
see the following post regarding Prescysol and Acros:

http://www.film-and-darkroom-user.org.uk/forum/showpost.php?p=613&postcount=8

MickS
15th February 2010, 01:33 PM
watcha,
I tried Acros 100, about 18 months or so ago, bought 5 rolls 120 to shoot off in the Bronica. Developed in Rodinal, the 1st 2 rolls produced thin, milky negs, the ADOX CHS 50 and FP4 I exposed at the same time were fine. I fired off another roll a couple of days later, in one back, and a roll of 100 Delta in another, using identical readings and subjects for both rolls, predictably, the result was Acros, nil points, Delta, 100 points. Always the optomist:-) I tried the other 2 rolls, developed in ID11, this time, both no good, I wrote to the suppliers, no answer, I wrote to Fuji, no answer, giving both of them the details of date of purchase, expiry, and batch numbers, I came to the conclusion that Acros is rubbish and they know that it is rubbish and they were keeping their heads down. I stick to Adox single layer emulsions and FP4 now.
best
Mick

Barry
15th February 2010, 02:21 PM
I have had very good results with Acros in Moersch Tanol.

RH Designs
15th April 2010, 08:45 AM
I just processed my first two rolls of 35mm Acros, in Rodinal 1+50 for 12 mins. The negs look good, punchy and with very fine grain and should print well at around G2. I'd happily use it again.