Hi Walt - I used to use Plus-X extensively, and always developed it myself in Acutol or Microdol-X. Acutol gives very fine grain and high acutance (as the name implies) with lovely smooth tone gradation. Microdol-X is designed to give very sharp negatives, perhaps a little more grain and contrast than Acutol. I normally rated it at 200ASA, but it's worth testing a roll or two with your own gear to see what suits you best. To save film, you could expose half-dozen frames on a roll at 80, 125 and 200 ASA for each set , then develop the roll normally to see which works best. You can push Plus-X quite hard, but the quality begins to drop off at over 400ASA, I found.
I never much liked 400CN, couldn't seem to get really black and white negs, always a little tinge of colour left. Haven't used UltraMax, so can't help you there! HTH John Coyle Brisbane, Australia -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Walter Gilbert Sent: Wednesday, 9 February 2011 2:23 PM To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List Subject: Advice solicitation for analog shooting So, I now have this K1000 and a decent array of lenses to use on it. Having finally figured out how to properly operate the camera after wasting one roll of Fuji Superia X-tra 400 due to the fact that I opened the back of the camera prematurely thinking I had it completely wound (didn't realize I had to press the button on the bottom plate), and nearly wasting a roll of Kodak Plus-X 125 by not properly affixing it to the advance mechanism (didn't securely set the notches onto the teeth), I think it's time I ask for a little guidance before I proceed any further. I have three different types of film and thought I'd ask the experienced film shooters if there's anything I can do to get better images out of them -- any quirks or characteristics I should be mindful of, or specific uses or conditions any of them particularly excel at. I have the following: 2 rolls Plus-X 125 3 rolls BW400CN 4 rolls UltraMax 400 What do I need to know from here? Thanks! Walt -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
