D76 anyone?

I think HC-110 acquired a lot of caché when Ansel Adams began using it for his rollfilm work. Before that, I'm told, it wasn't used much by amateur photographers.

I do find HC-110 a good push developer. It's fairly vigorous stuff.

Gene
 
My problem is that it tends to be very sensitive to temperature variations. When you work out of a bathroom, that can result in a lot of variability. If you let the temp climb upwards, the graininess increased. It was a real nuisance when I was using half-frame 35's a lot. D-76 and Microcol-X were just easier to use.

-Paul
 
My wife and I have been cleaning out the accumulated detritus of 34 years of marriage and ratpacking. Last week she found in our front closet some developing gear and a sealed can of D-76 plus a sealed can of D-76 refresher. Both are at least 35 years old. Does anyone think they will still work? I used to use D-76 with plus-x and tri-x with very good results.
Kurt M.
 
pshinkaw said:
I too heard that HC-11- was the liquid concentrate equivalent of D-76. I tried some as result and fouynd that to be untrue.It's poosibgle to use it in a way that gives results very similar to D-76, but as long as D-76 is available, why bother?

I think HC-110 may have been originally created for commercial applications back when you could actually get B&W developed at the drugstore. Some people love it, I'm more than happy to let them have it.

-Paul
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I used to have a book, I think it was the Photographer's Handbook but I don't remember for sure. Anyway, it listed all the formulas for the different developers. I don't remember how differeent now, but I do remember HC110 and D76 were not the same. I have heard that D76 and Ilford ID11 were the same, but don't remember if that was from that book or just having read it somewhere.

Wish I had that book! It explained the chemical makeup of different developers and what they were best for. It was neat in Korea in the mid-70's to go to photography stores and buy chemicals and mix my own developers for trial. Hydroquinone cocktail anyone? :eek:
 
GeneW said:
Walker, I bought these in the local photo store ... in 1972 ... they used to be a common item. Gene
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That's what I was afraid of. Bottles like that are almost nonexistent now...... at least I haven't seen any in years. I keep hoping to run across a few in flea markets and the like but no luck yet.

Walker
 
Scarpia said:
My wife and I have been cleaning out the accumulated detritus of 34 years of marriage and ratpacking. Last week she found in our front closet some developing gear and a sealed can of D-76 plus a sealed can of D-76 refresher. Both are at least 35 years old. Does anyone think they will still work? I used to use D-76 with plus-x and tri-x with very good results.
Kurt M.
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Well it would be a hoot to try it out to see. Try it on a test roll rather than something important to see if it's still okay. My guess is that if the can is still sealed, it'll work.

Gene
 
Like Sean suggested, I shoot Tri-X at ISO 200 and process in D:76 for about 8min 45sec with good results.
I just returned from Playa Del Carmen in the Yucatan (where I had a really hard time seeing in BW, seems like you should shoot color, which I did also) using Acros, I will hopefully upload some tonight ,developed in D:76.

Todd
 
pshinkaw said:
I think HC-110 may have been originally created for commercial applications back when you could actually get B&W developed at the drugstore. Some people love it, I'm more than happy to let them have it.
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I think so, Paul... My recollection is that HC-110 was popular with newspapers, with fast development times to help get the scoop into the next edition.
 
I spoke with a very experienced and knowledgable old-time type photographer who swore that he consistently got perfect results by mixing up a small amount of the powdered D76. Now I, and we, have all read that that is a no-no, that the different ingredients are not evenly distributed in the powder, but, his experience has been positive with this procedure. Anyone else doing this?
 
has anyone here had good results using d-76 and neopan? i have free acces to a darkroom that only has d-76, and cant really afford to buy anything besides film and paper.
 
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