400TX

Unsolicited editorials on cameras, lenses, film, developer, and black and white photography in general.

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Location: New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

Monday, April 23, 2007

Agfa APX 100 in Prescysol

When I shot this roll of APX 100, I was hoping that it would develop nicely in Prescysol. PMK Pyro and Prescysol are the two most consistent developers on my shelf, and I like using both. Both are liquids, both have a good shelf life, and both are economical and easy to use. I have had good results with Rodinal and APX 100, but APX 100 is the only reason I still bother to keep Rodinal around. I'd would rather that it worked well in Prescysol too.
I will be taking about 20 rolls of APX 100 to Santa Fe this week. Now was a good time to shoot a test roll. The lens was a 50/1.4 Summilux pre-asph. The aperture was probably around f/2.8. Shutter speed was 1/1000.

The test shots were very contrasty, which is what I expect from APX 100. That's one of the things I like about APX 100. Maximum black is just that. There are some blown-out highlights, but that is to be expected when shooting a subject in the shade while leaving the unshaded parts in the frame. What concerned me more was grain and resolution. The grain of APX 100 seems less apparent than when developed in Rodinal. The resolution is fairly good as well.

To be fair to Rodinal, I should probably shoot some APX 100 under similar conditions and try Rodinal. But that's low on my priority scale. I like the APX100 + Prescysol combination. I am hoping to get some feedback from others who have tried it.

Freestyle Photo claims that their Arista 100 is APX 100. If that's so, that's great. It's dirt cheap. I have a case of APX100 that I bought when Agfa went belly up two years ago. But I'd like to think it was still available after that case is gone.