B&W Developer Advice?

[titrisol]

Make 1 gallon of solution, store it in nalgene or PET (mountain Dew) 12oz bottles filled to the brim
Then use 1 bottle at a time, your developer should last easily 1 year.

Or use one of the D76 clones that come in liquid form

Well, I'm a big coward when it comes to processing B&W, I'll tell you. I've always used D76 and am pretty comfortable with the way it works, but I end up throwing a lot of it away - just don't shoot enough B&W and it goes bad or gets so old I don't trust it. I've purchased the Acufine and the Diafine with the idea of doing some push-processing at some point, but since I shot all these at their recommended ISO, I suspect that they would not be a good choice this time.

I'd be interested in trying DDX or XTOL, neither of which I have any experience with - what would I be gaining over D76? I realize we're talking about perceptions here, which tend to be subjective, but I'm still interested!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[bmattock]

Bill, given the films you used any developer will work for you.
Now:
Are you willing to test on these rolls?
Or do you want to use what you already know [D76]?
Are you going to scan or print?

If you want to experiment I'd say either Ilford DDX/Clayton F76 or Xtol are the way to go.
I favor DDX since it is a liquid.
Those give you a little bit better sharpness than D76 without sacrificng grain, and work great for scanning.

Good questions, thank you! I am probably too lazy to clip test, but I guess I could be forced into it. I was hoping for a 'never lost a man yet' developer that keeps a long time, but I guess they're all a crap shoot if you've never used them. I'm perfectly willing to use D76, I was just thinking about the economy of using D76 for this one thing, then wasting the rest when it goes bad from non-use. And I'm going to scan - I have no darkroom or enlarger.

Is Clayton F76 the same thing as D76?

Thank you!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[bmattock]

Make 1 gallon of solution, store it in nalgene or PET (mountain Dew) 12oz bottles filled to the brim
Then use 1 bottle at a time, your developer should last easily 1 year.

Or use one of the D76 clones that come in liquid form

Interesting concept! I can come up with some empty Mountain Dew bottles, that's for sure.

Thanks for the tip!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[titrisol]

Clayton F76 is more similar to DDX than it is to D76.
I got a sample from Clayton, when we thought Ilford was going down the drain, and all I have for that developer is praise! I wish our local store would carry the clayton line.

Since you are going to scan, I wouldn't reccomend Rodinal. Scanning just makes the grain worse than it is in reality, and Rodinal gives a great feeling to the pictures but small grain is not one of its vurtues. For scanning Xtol, D76, DDX, or ..... will give you great results!

The concept of breaking developer into small bottles is not new and it works great.
if you can get small brown glass bottles (cough syrup bottles or so) it is best, but green or brown soda bottles work great too. I further store my developer in a cool-dark place 😉

Some people put saran wrap on the screw-on lid but I've found that unnecesary.

Now, before you toss your developer do the following test:
- Put an exposed leader in the developer and agitate slightly. If the clip turns dark-grey in about 1/5th the time you expected your film to be developed you ar ein bussiness!

 

[iggers]

I have a follow-up question about Diafine. My emulsion may be very dense. If Diafine allows you to shoot many black and white films at speeds higher than their rating, and still develop a good negative, um, duh, does that mean that I can load a roll of 100asa film, and shoot almost without regard to the speed of the film? Diafine will make it right?

 

[titrisol]

I think that is not how Diafine works... but normally a +/-1 stop will do fine in Diafine.

Diafine was intended for newspapers IIRC, and exposure was not so critical.

 

[kaiyen]

However, also note that Diafine was, AFAIK, developed almost exclusively for TXT. It works well with other films, but you can't be quite as liberal with EI settings with some as with TXT.

allan

 

[bmattock]

OK, folks, I think I am ready to place my order for developer (I also need fixer, because I'm out).

I took all of your excellent advice under consideration. There were some requirements that made me discount one or another product, including:

1) I have already exposed the film (at ISO=EI, no push or pull).
2) I have a mixed bag of various brands and speeds.
3) I intend to scan and not print (don't have a darkroom, etc).
4) Relative unfamiliarity with developers other than good old D76.


I have on-hand Diafine and Acufine, but I think they are not the way to go with this situation, so I'll save those for later use.

Using your advice, I narrowed my choices down to D76 (and maybe / maybe not be able to use the whole thing before it goes bad) and whatever else might be:

a) Available via mail order (no camera store anywhere near)

AND

b) Relatively easy to use (so I don't screw it up)

AND

c) Has dev times listed for ALL the films I'm using.

That last bit took some work. I made use of Freestyle Photo's excellent online tool:

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/techtips_filmdev.php

But I also had an oddball roll of film, KonicaMinolta PAN 100 (sent to me by a wonderful RFF'er who shall remain unamed unless he wants to come forward and take a bow), which I could not find a tech sheet on. There is on on KM's website, but it is in Japanese and a PDF to boot.

However, thinking quickly (LOL!) I used Google's ability to translate PDF to HTML and gave that URL to Alta Vista's Babelfish and told it to translate Japanese to English. Not the best translation, but the numbers work!

http://konicaminolta.jp/products/consumer/film/datasheet/pdf/pan100.pdf

The Konica pan l00 is adapted to the light of all conditions the ortho pas of the sensitivity which it is easiest to useIt is ンクロマチックフィルム. Sharp of the particle and the picture which are even very finely beautifullyThe color sensitivity which reproduces Ness and visible optical all to natural condition every subject is beautiful descriptionIt does. Vis-a-vis exposure and development the wide latitude (latitude) with, great -Because Shaun (gradation) is rich, the black film of the universal type which faces to outdoors and to the interiorIt can use widely as.

However, the most important part, the actual times and dev solutions, worked fine. Seems they have two developers listed that I recognize - D76 and HC110 (B solution).

However - sadly - Freestyle Photo's dev chart says not to soup my single roll of Arista.EDU Ultra 200 (Fomapan 200) in HC-110. It does give a D76 combination, though.

I did a little checking - I found a combination that will allow Fomapan 200 in HC-110, but only the 'new' Fomapan T200. Freestyle says that their Arista.EDU Ultra 200 is not Fomapan T200, so there goes that idea.

All the others (Ilford HP5+, Konicapan 100, Agfa APX 100) will work with D76 as well.

I guess I'm stuck with D76 for now. And here I wanted to be all creative and stuff.

I guess sometimes plain vanilla is the best choice.

Dang!

Now...the fixer. I'm planning on ordering el cheapo generic Arista fixer (non-hardening) from Freestyle. Any problem with that?

And thank you all again for your assistance. I really appreciated it all!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[kaiyen]

Bill,
First of all - fixer is fixer, for the most part. You'll be fine with the Arista one (which is probably the clayton one, actually).

However...why is it that you are so averse to using D76, other than the issue of perhaps tossing some of it out? D76 is a really versatile developer capable of a wide range of results.

allan

 

[bmattock]

Bill,
First of all - fixer is fixer, for the most part. You'll be fine with the Arista one (which is probably the clayton one, actually).

However...why is it that you are so averse to using D76, other than the issue of perhaps tossing some of it out? D76 is a really versatile developer capable of a wide range of results.

allan

Oh, I love D76, no problem there. I just hate tossing it out when it is half-full but has gone flat or is suspect. I was hoping to try a one-shot wunderkind developer that everyone goes nutso over - like driving a Porsche after chugging around in a Chevy Impala all these years.

Thanks for the info on the Fixer!

Hey - I also have a small (opened) bottle of Freestyle Developer - 8 oz, I think, maybe 12. About a year old, I used it once mixed 1+9 and it worked fine. Is that Clayton as well? I recall reading that the 'premium' Freestyle dev is Clayton F76 Plus or some such thing.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Hektor]

Keep your unused d76 in the fridge 😀

 

[bmattock]

Keep your unused d76 in the fridge 😀

Not really an option for me. My fridge is for food. And beer.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Trius]

Bill: Given the circumstances, I think you're safest with D76. One of the lessons I would take from this is: don't shoot so many different emulsions on one outing! 😉 Likely it was what you had available, and that's OK. And you're in the DSLR 12 step programme, so that's understood, too. But if you shoot one or two b&w emulsions, you can eventually nail down a protocol that works. Welcome back to b&w processing, AKA the Land of Indecision!

Trius

 

[kaiyen]

Hm. you may be right - freestyle "regular" might not be clayton. Though I have no idea who would make that - I don't think they make anything in-house.

You can always use the D76 1+0 for everything. That'll use it up in a hurry, though you'll lose sharpness.

allan

 

[Kin Lau]

However - sadly - Freestyle Photo's dev chart says not to soup my single roll of Arista.EDU Ultra 200 (Fomapan 200) in HC-110. It does give a D76 combination, though.

Looks like HC-110 dilution B is just too active. 5 min's is considered the "standard minimum", since any less time and the possibility of uneven development will be a problem. In most of the charts, HC-110B's time is typically about 1/2 of D76 1:1, so it's time for Fomapan is likely in the 3 to 3.5 min range... much too short.

For an irreplaceable roll, I'd stick with D76. Otherwise, if you're feeling adventuresome, and you have another roll of Fomapan 200 around, you could try HC-110 dilution H (1+63) at about 7min's @ 68F/20C on the test roll.

 

[Hektor]

Beers no good for deving film

 

[bmattock]

Beers no good for deving film

Not to mention being alcohol abuse! However, I hear you can use coffee. Not that I really want to, but it might be fun to try someday.

 

[bmattock]

Bill: Given the circumstances, I think you're safest with D76. One of the lessons I would take from this is: don't shoot so many different emulsions on one outing! 😉 Likely it was what you had available, and that's OK. And you're in the DSLR 12 step programme, so that's understood, too. But if you shoot one or two b&w emulsions, you can eventually nail down a protocol that works. Welcome back to b&w processing, AKA the Land of Indecision!

Trius

You're right about shooting all those different types of film - what was I thinking? And you're right - it was what I had with me. I burned through my remaining stocks of HP5+ and APX 100. Still have a couple rolls of the Fomapan 200 (Arista) to play with. Gotta ton of that curly Arista.EDU 100, (fortepan) but I may never get around to using it - so curly it is hard to load onto reels and scan!

 

[bmattock]

Looks like HC-110 dilution B is just too active. 5 min's is considered the "standard minimum", since any less time and the possibility of uneven development will be a problem. In most of the charts, HC-110B's time is typically about 1/2 of D76 1:1, so it's time for Fomapan is likely in the 3 to 3.5 min range... much too short.

For an irreplaceable roll, I'd stick with D76. Otherwise, if you're feeling adventuresome, and you have another roll of Fomapan 200 around, you could try HC-110 dilution H (1+63) at about 7min's @ 68F/20C on the test roll.

Good idea there, thanks! I think I have one more roll of the Fomapan (Arista). Hmmm. Might go that way.

 

[Trius]

Ah, so that's the scoop on HC-110 and the Arista. If I ever used Dilution B, it was very early on when I was cutting my teeth. I used G & H, IIRC. Since my times with Tri-X at E.I. 200 were about 6-3/4 minutes, I'd say probably H.

Trius