400 Tri-X in D76

JeremyLangford

JeremyLangford

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Tomorrow I will be developing two rolls of 400 Tri-X in D76 at the same time for my high school B&W film photography class. Its the first time I have developed in a while. Does anyone have a good developing time, stop time, and fix time that I can go by?

I am not sure which dilution my teacher used when she mixed the developer. She probably used the stock dilution. I also have no way to keep a constant temperature throughout development. All I know is the the chemicals will be at room temperature because they have been sitting in bottles for weeks. I don't know what Stop Bath my teacher uses but I know its not water. I also don't know what Fix she uses. Also we use HCA before the wash.

Any insight will be greatly appreciated.
 
Dilute the developer one to one with water, use a quick plain water rinse for "stop" bath, and fix twice as long as it takes to clear. When you load your tank save a film leader. Drop it in the fixer and time it until it clears.

Set all your bottles and your developing tank in a tray of water for ten or fifteen minutes. This will equalize and stabilize the temperature.

After the fix give it a quick rinse followed by a couple minutes in the HCA with agitation, a five minute wash in running water, perhaps a dip in a wetting agent such as a drop of Phot-Flo in a tank of water, and you should be good to go! Welcome to The Secret Society!

Type "massive developing chart" into your computer. It'll bring up developing times for films you never heard of, but Kodak Tri-X is there with times for D-76 full strength and diluted 1:1.

Have fun!
 
I second the massive chart website! But a word of caution. Like any development time recommendation, these are merely educated suggestions.
 
JeremyLangford said:
Tomorrow I will be developing two rolls of 400 Tri-X ...

I am not sure which dilution my teacher used when she mixed the developer....

I don't know what Stop Bath my teacher uses....

Any insight will be greatly appreciated.
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If you have 2 rolls, and you have doubts about chemistry, process them one at a time, to limit your liability.
 
use water instead of stop. if the fixer is good, it'll clear just about anything in 8 minutes or so. you can bring your developer outside for 10 or 15 minutes and then let it warm up a bit, thats what I usually do this time of year.
 
The massive developing chart says 6.75 minutes for stock solution and 9.75 minutes for 1:1 solution. Both of these are for a 20C temperature. Is 20C a normal room temperature for liquids?
 
20C/68f is a common "standard temperature" for developing so if your house is kept at that temerature and you keep your chemicals along with the water for diluting the developer to 1:1 and the rinse water inside you'll be fine. This time of year in most parts of the U.S. your tap water will be a lot colder. It's best to check the temperature with a thermometer.

They say that anywhere from about 65f to 75f is OK as long as you compensate by developing for a longer or shorter time In the summer here in Miami my tap water often gets up to as much as 84f. I cool my developer to 80, shorten the time some more, and have no problems. Below 65 some of the components of the developer start to become less active faster than others, and it can cause problems.

Judging by the rudimentry directions your teacher gave I suspect that you're going to have the best negatives in the class, what with all the advice you're getting here...LOL
 
Al Kaplan said:
20C/68f is a common "standard temperature" for developing so if your house is kept at that temerature and you keep your chemicals along with the water for diluting the developer to 1:1 and the rinse water inside you'll be fine. This time of year in most parts of the U.S. your tap water will be a lot colder. It's best to check the temperature with a thermometer.

They say that anywhere from about 65f to 75f is OK as long as you compensate by developing for a longer or shorter time In the summer here in Miami my tap water often gets up to as much as 84f. I cool my developer to 80, shorten the time some more, and have no problems. Below 65 some of the components of the developer start to become less active faster than others, and it can cause problems.

Judging by the rudimentry directions your teacher gave I suspect that you're going to have the best negatives in the class, what with all the advice you're getting here...LOL
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Yeah. Its pretty ridiculous how little she knows about the whole B&W analog process. She thinks I am a photography genius but as you guys can tell, I know very little about B&W. Now I am starting to realize that you can't exactly find set rules that will always work for B&W developing. I guys experimenting is the key.
 
Jeremy, IIRC, there were some problems with your film (as per another thread of yours). By all means, test the fixer first thing. Just snip a strip of negative and drop it in the fixer (you can do this is one of the plastic film canisters, just pour some developer in). Once the film is in the fixer, see how long it takes for the strip to become transparent and fix for twice as long. If the strip goes clear in three minutes, fix for six.

In my case, I always needed to fix for a bit longer the Kodak film. Just add one minute to the result of the strip test and you'll be on the safe side... and also on your teacher's good side! :)
 
Experimenting and TAKING NOTES! Keep track of what you do. Keep track of your exposures too. Your camera's meter might not be perfectly calibrated or your style of metering might be different. Carry a notebook and a pen. USE them. After a few rolls of experimenting you might discover that you get better negatives exposing at ISO 250 or ISO 500 or something else. As a general rule exposure controls both overall density and shadow detail while developing time controls contrast. Longer developing time equals more contrast, along with a SLIGHT increase in overall density.
 
Jeremy,

Go exploring on the Ilford film pages. Somewhere there is a wonderful extensive time-temp. compensation chart in PDF format. When you find it, print several copies. Keep a copy where ever you develop film. When you know the temp. of your developer, you consult the chart for the correct time for that temperature. It works like a charm.
 
I use small lunch size re-freeze Blue-Ice thingies in the summer to lower the temp. in my dish pan full of water and chemical containers. You would be amazed at how long 2-3 gallons of liquid will stay at a given temperature. Easily long enough for developing B&W film.
 
I also have been processing Tri-X for the first time in awhile.

So far I am using D-76 1:1 at 68 degrees for 8 minutes. I have been exposing at ISO 200. The negatives a tad on the thin side but this is best for scanning. I don't do wet prints.

I use a couple of ice cubes to lower the starting temperature to 68. I really don't concern myself with temperature change during the development period. I figure that it may rise a degree or two by the end of 8 minutes but I hardly think that this is significant.

Throw away the developer and use fresh the next time.

Next I am going to mix up a gallon of Diafine and give it a shot. This stuff sounds like the magic elixir of developers.
 
Hey folks, our lad Jeremy is working in a school darkroom. The local rules apply. We don't want Jeremy to get in trouble for doing anything out of the ordinary.
 
dfoo said:
Not re-using fixer is very wasteful... it is good for many many rolls of film.
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I agree. I use Kodafix, mix it up to a 1 gallon stock solution and put a piece of red gaffers tape on it. For every 5 rolls I do a "tick" mark on it. I also note the date when mixed. After 6 weeks it is dumped (or 50 rolls, what ever comes first). I have used the same system for almost 40 years and I have still to see any "fixing problems" on the film.
 
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