Developers for B&W film

[Freakscene]

I committed to a bottle of TMax film dev, hoping to get some decent results from that. From what I've seen, the 1:7 dilution seems good for my needs.

I used to very much like TMax RS. It’s now discontinued. I used to open the bottle, put the replenisher in, and use it at 1+7 to 1+15. Regular TMax developer causes dichroic fog with sheet film. I don’t know what sheet film users do now. Went back to HC-110, maybe.

 

[dave lackey]

Maybe I missed something amidst the last 24 months of family tragedies. Stress? My brain? 🤷🏼‍♂️ After two more deaths yesterday, my mind is numb and I desperately need to get back to developing film. It is the best therapy I have found.

For some reason I can’t recall how best to check my DD-X developer! I have a half bottle that is about six months old. It worked fine in February. But I do not want to lose a roll of exposed Acros100 film so please refresh my memory on checking both developer AND fixer before starting my marathon developing sessions.🙂

You guys are great.

Thank you kindly in advance for your advice.👍

 

[Freakscene]

Maybe I missed something amidst the last 24 months of family tragedies. Stress? My brain? 🤷🏼‍♂️ After two more deaths yesterday, my mind is numb and I desperately need to get back to developing film. It is the best therapy I have found.

For some reason I can’t recall how best to check my DD-X developer! I have a half bottle that is about six months old. It worked fine in February. But I do not want to lose a roll of exposed Acros100 film so please refresh my memory on checking both developer AND fixer before starting my marathon developing sessions.🙂

You guys are great.

Thank you kindly in advance for your advice.👍

The easiest way is to check if it us within use by date.

All the other methods require some additional materials or pre-existing information. The easiest is to shoot another roll and develop it and see if the development looks ok, either by eye or with a densitometer of flat bed scanner.

I hope things improve for you; that sounds like a really tough time.

Marty

 

[Dogman]

Sorry to hear of your family tragedies, Dave. Hope things will be getting better soon.

To everyone here with experience, I'm delving into film again and this thread certainly has been interesting to me. I see some mention Rodinal doesn't play well with 400 speed film, yet I recall using it with Tri-X and HP5 in the 1970s and again in the early 2000s with excellent results. I got great tonality with Rodinal and those films...didn't really mind the grain. Hell, I like grain. I also used Edwal FG7 and dilute D76/ID11 with good results.

I'm wondering if Rodinal--and I'm mainly referring to the R09 One Shot stuff from Rollei since I bought a bottle of it recently--is that much different today or has 400 speed changed this much since the early part of the 21st Century. I know Tri-X changed and I switched to HP5+ about that time. I never liked T-Max or any of the "tablet" grain films I tried so I wanna stick to the traditional type films.

Thanks for any responses.

 

[agentlossing]

I like Rodinal with HP5+. Not so much with Tri-X or Kentmere 400. Foma/Arista 400 is super grainy but in a pleasant way.

 

[skahde]

As far as I know Agfa Rodinal slightly differs from R09, as Agfa made small adjust to formulation and preparation of it in the last decades of its existence. R09 is based on the published formula and will give about a third stop less sensitivity compared to Agfa Rodinal from e.g. the eighties or nineties. Furthermore, it has been formulated assuming 18 C as room-temperature if you look into Agfa's Laborhandbuch from 1936. The low temperature keeps the grain at bay especially with soft emulsions. It works suprisingly well 1:50 with HP5+ at lower temperature, 320 ISO with fine grain.

 

[rover]

Some times you need something new to do something old again. I have been itching to break a decade of slump trying digital photography, which of course I will still do, but it just wasn't as fun. The itch was fed by viewing lots of photos, including those in this thread. Our niece and nephew have just been blessed with Wesley, and I have a new subject. My first film exposed in a long time. My first film developed in a long time. My first film scanned in a long time. My first film edited in a long time. I still have a ways to go to learn what have forgotten, but a thank you for the inspiration here. Thank you guys.

Wesley, Tri-x in Xtol 1:1

wes2 by Ralph Meliso, on Flickr

wes15 by Ralph Meliso, on Flickr

 

[dave lackey]

Sorry to hear of your family tragedies, Dave. Hope things will be getting better soon.

To everyone here with experience, I'm delving into film again and this thread certainly has been interesting to me. I see some mention Rodinal doesn't play well with 400 speed film, yet I recall using it with Tri-X and HP5 in the 1970s and again in the early 2000s with excellent results. I got great tonality with Rodinal and those films...didn't really mind the grain. Hell, I like grain. I also used Edwal FG7 and dilute D76/ID11 with good results.

I'm wondering if Rodinal--and I'm mainly referring to the R09 One Shot stuff from Rollei since I bought a bottle of it recently--is that much different today or has 400 speed changed this much since the early part of the 21st Century. I know Tri-X changed and I switched to HP5+ about that time. I never liked T-Max or any of the "tablet" grain films I tried so I wanna stick to the traditional type films.

Thanks for any responses.

Thanks, appreciated very much.😇

As I have slowly resurfaced the past weeks, I’ve been trying to re-stock on film, and developers. I have found that Adox Rodinal works great and I can’t seem to find any available!

Does anyone know what has happened?🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[dave lackey]

Some times you need something new to do something old again. I have been itching to break a decade of slump trying digital photography, which of course I will still do, but it just wasn't as fun. The itch was fed by viewing lots of photos, including those in this thread. Our niece and nephew have just been blessed with Wesley, and I have a new subject. My first film exposed in a long time. My first film developed in a long time. My first film scanned in a long time. My first film edited in a long time. I still have a ways to go to learn what have forgotten, but a thank you for the inspiration here. Thank you guys.

Wesley, Tri-x in Xtol 1:1

wes2 by Ralph Meliso, on Flickr

wes15 by Ralph Meliso, on Flickr

Beautiful photos!!! 😇😇😇

 

[Freakscene]

Thanks, appreciated very much.😇

As I have slowly resurfaced the past weeks, I’ve been trying to re-stock on film, and developers. I have found that Adox Rodinal works great and I can’t seem to find any available!

Does anyone know what has happened?🤷🏼‍♂️

I’ve no idea what has happened other than that almost everything for traditional photography goes in and out of availability these days. Fotoimpex in Berlin have plenty of Rodinal if you’re willing to pay for shipping.

Marty