Because there's quite a few of them out there, even though film has been a bit down on the popularity ranking for a few years. Now it's on it's way back though, and for the first time it seems that we are getting more films on the market than the number of films being taken away. Which is good, of course.
I brought the quite bigish Mamiya RZ67 on board at some point and snapped this from the back deck of the ship. Probably using the 50mm wide angle lens with some kind of filter (cheap orange one maybe) attached. Today this same snap would just result in nothing good at all, as there's too much clutter back there. And you would not see it all because of the fog and the rainy weather and what have you. This day was sunny though, and we were moored at the pier close to Kirkwall, Orkney. A very nice place to be, by the way.
The reason I'm throwing out the question is the fact that I will soon have a few films to develop, and I know I have been a bit lazy on the developer side lately. I have pretty much used what seemed to be the simplest sollution there and then, and it might not always be the best choice.
So, when pushing some PAN400 to around 1600 ASA, just to take something completely random out of the air, what would be your first choice of developer? It's a grainy thing from the start, and also quite contrasty, so we might not want to use the biggest sledgehammer we can find on this? But then again it all boils down to what kind of end result you are looking for, I know.
There never seems to be a straight answer to anything reg. film. Which is kind of good, after all.
Scrabster, Scotland UK. Years ago now, I think. I was walking The Street with one of the Nikon FM2s loaded with some kind of film. It's from the archives, and I have probably posted it before at some point. There might be new readers, though. And I should soon have something a bit fresher to post, so hang in here!
Still, it's the best compensating developer I know of, and it's not creating a huge ammount of grain either, so I might go for it. As we are talking about 135 film here, grain will more or less always be visible anyway. And after all I usually like it to some degree, as you probably know.
Scotland, Nikon FM2 probably. Unknown film.
OK! This is just what it looks like, actually. Random thoughts late one Tuesday night at sea when I obviously got nothing better to chat about.
But I would very much like to know what developer you would go for! I've tried a few, but I'm not an expert developer by any means.
Thanks!
I'm watching this one with interest, Roy and hope you get some ideas thrown your way. Back in the day Microphen was the liquid of choice (or was it powder, I forget) in the McNeill household when we went up into the higher echelons of ASA. But then again, if I remember correctly, that particular developer was designed to keep the grain to a minimum, and that may not be what you want.
SvarSlettLove that first snap, by the way - wonderful. You're probably sick looking at stuff like that but for the rest of us it's a work of art. And the Mamiya was the right choice there, methinks - a big camera to capture a big bit of steelwork :)
Thanks for your comment, Michael. Maybe Microphen could be worth a try, actually. I've never tried that one, but it could absolutely be worth the time and effort. On 135 film there usually is no problem to get visible grain anyway, and at least not when you use pushed film.
SlettSo, Microphen would be on the list of things to try. Thanks!