Could paper developer be used for film?

Yes, I believe it can be used - but you're not going to want to do it. I once tried to develop Tri-X in Dektol. Not a good thing, really.

In any case, I strongly suspect you won't find any times/temps for that sort of thing - not enough people have tried it and recorded the results, I think.

I'm sorry to hear you got the wrong thing. Have you already mixed it up? You could always try to do a swap here on RFF - maybe? Just a thought. I don't enlarge and print on photo paper anymore or I'd try to hook you up myself.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Yeah, it's possible, but Dektol is a very fast-acting developer. My only experience in dunking film in it was as a first introduction to darkroom work by a more experienced buddy. This was in the base photo lab at an air-base after hours, Dec 1963. He'd dip a finger in the tray and figure it was about the right temp, and then we'd turn out the light and unroll the film from the reel, and grasp it with a hand at each end, and run it through the shallow pool of developer in the open tray. After a few minutes of this, we'd briefly turn on the safelight to see what the negs looked like. If it looked "done" we switched to the stop bath, but it was only after the fixer that we could really get a good look at what we had. About all I can report is that "it worked". :)
 
I remember reading an article in a vintage 1950s photo magazine years ago about newspaper darkroom techs dev. 4x5 negs in Dektol . I cannot remember the dev. time. but I do remember it was very very short.
 
Someone calls this paper developer as D72, which could be usedwith 1:10 water ratio, at temp of 20, developing 6 minutes for ASA 100 film. But he says it is not recommended due to the high contrast and many particles/noises of the result.
 
I believe that Dektol 1:1 at 68 degrees F for 2 minutes will give you developed film. It will be grainy and contrasty. Development times of longer than 2 minutes gives toasted negatives.

Wayne
 
it should be possible yes
Paper and film developers use basically the same ingredients.
AMOF there used to be a few "universal" developers, that you diluted 1+9 for film and 1+2 or 1+1 for paper.
AGFA had metinol and Kodak had one and there were a bunch of clones.

Now using Dektol is not very smart, lotsa grain in there, but it's fun.
Google for Dektol film developer and I guess you'll have afew good hits.
 
Back in the late '70s, all of us at a paper I worked at regularly developed TX in Dektol. We had very good results with high acutance (looked very much like Acufine) and moderate grain.

As I recall, TX at EI 200 (or was it 320?) in Dektol stock solution, 90 seconds, continuous agitation. Skip the stop, pour the fixer right in. Under certain temp/humidity condition, we'd get a puff of something that looked like smoke when you poured in the fix.

I'll see if I can find any prints from that era to scan, but I have no idea where they'd be.
 
Wayne R. Scott said:
I believe that Dektol 1:1 at 68 degrees F for 2 minutes will give you developed film. It will be grainy and contrasty. Development times of longer than 2 minutes gives toasted negatives.

Wayne
Click to expand...

Wayne is correct, but I've used this dilution and time for Tri-X and HP5. I used to shoot these films with a 25A filter and expose the film as if I wasn't using a filter.
 
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