Kodak Vision2 500T in Kodak D-76

[iangreenhalgh1]

I had great results with the 100T variant of this film stock in D-76. This roll of 500T has also come out pretty good, grain is slightly greater but otherwise, it looks the same as the 100T.

I had some strange dark marks on many of the frames, not sure what went on there, but the frames that were unaffected show good results imho.

Exposed at 533 in my Pentax MV-1 with M 1.7/50, developed in D-76 1:1, 15mins at 24C slightly underdeveloped on some frames, but only by about half a stop at most.

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[Orio]

Have you processed the frames after scanning, or are these direct scans?
I see a strange aspect in some places, something like blurring blots, don't know how to explain better but it does not look natural.
Contrast seem perfect.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Processed. Sharpened then noise reduced. Sometimes Dfine seems to smear detail in areas, other times it doesn't, I think it depends on the level of grain it has to deal with and the smearing only occurs when there is a higher level of grain.

Contrast has been boosted on all of them, this film seems to need that, it has a high dynamic range so it is possible to make large boosts in contrast without losing highlight and shadow detail.

[Orio]

Ah ok, then it's the noise reduction which did that.
Have you tried to not apply any (noise reduction?)
Maybe the tradeoff is worse than the noise.

[iangreenhalgh1]

I'm not a fan of noise/grain so I tend to prefer to reduce it and live with the smearing. However I did discard some frames because the noise reduction produced too much smearing.

I'm not too concerned about it as when I use Fomadon LQR with this film, I get less grain and don't have the problem, I am only using D-76 atm because I've run out of Fomadon and the D-76 I happened to have in the cupboard so it's a temporary stopgap. Also, under 'normal' circumstances I would just avoid shooting in bad light as far as possible, and it is only the shoots in bad light where I have had this issue. Circumstances are far from normal atm however, with record levels of rainfall and a total absence of anything resembling summer weather, so it's a case of getting out to shoot whenever the weather allows and just disregarding the light conditions, if I waited until there was some sunshine I'd not have shot more than a handful of frames in the last few weeks. This is the worst summer in Britain since records began in the 1760s and I don't remember seeing constant prolonged rainfall and dark skies without any sign of the sun as it has been ever before apart from in the depths of winter, but this is the height of summer!