Developing film after 20-year hiatus. Help needed w/ chemical list.

[Waterman100]

First, thanks to all who responded to my previous post seeking help w/ selecting development tank and reels. I now have all of the necessary hardware. I have not done film development for 20 years. Other than reading from the web to refresh my memory on development procedure, I am relying mostly on Bernhard Suess's excellent book "Mastering Black and White Photography."

I am thinking of buying the following chemicals, but have a few questions. As always, many thanks to the RFF community for all the help and support 🙂

FYI, I shoot mostly Arista Premium 100, 400 & Legacy Pro 100. I will also be doing push-processing.

Developer - I plan to get Kodak D-76. Questions: Free Style Photo's film development chart shows Kodak D-76 [1+1] and [1+3]. What do these two brackets mean? I live in NYC. Is using NYC water to mix the powder OK?

Stop Bath - Bernhard Suess suggests using tap water as stop bath. What do you think?

Fixer - I plan to get Kodak Rapid Fixer. Is hardener added to this fixer? Is hardener recommended?

Washing Aid - what should I get for this? Kodak Hypo Clearing Agent Powder?

Wetting Agent - Kodak Photo Flo?

***
My bad if the above seems as if I'm advertising for Kodak chemicals. I am not 🙂 But I am not familiar with characteristics of any brands / products, so all are the same to me.

I dont particularly care about brands, as long as I can get good and reliable results. So if you have any suggestions on alternate chemicals, please do let me know. Again, thanks very much for reading and suggestions.

 

[BTMarcais]

Everything you've picked out there should work fine. I generally go along w/ using water for a stop, supposedly you have less instance of pinholes (which i've only ever had issues w/ on large format films), and it's one less thing to buy. Just make sure the water bath is the same temperature as your other chems.

The 1+1 and 1+3 refer to dilutions. 1 part stock D76 to 1 part water, 1 part stock D76 to 3 parts water. 1:3 gives you lower contrast and a bit more grain, good for scenes w/ problem lighting sometimes, and 1:1 is a good general purpose dilution, not too contrasty and not to grainy (and not as long of a processing time as 1:3!)

Most Kodak Rapid Fix I see either has hardener added already or comes with a bottle of hardener to add to the solution. Not necessarily needed with most modern films (I usually use Ilford's rapid fix which has no hardener)d

I'm more a liquid-chem guy, so more likely to use Heico Perma-Wash for a hypo clear, but Kodak works fine.

You've got everything you need listed. It's like riding a bike, once you get back into it you'll do just fine. Just relax and have fun!

-Brian

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

D-76 can be used full strength, or diluted. The 1+1 dilution is most common (equal parts developer and water).

Like Brian, I also use Ilford rapid fix without hardener. Modern films don't need it, and current scientific opinion is that it reduces the archival lifespan of film.

Hypo clear is not needed with film. Rapid fixers wash out of film in about the same amount of time it takes to wash the hypo clear itself from the film.

All you need are the D-76, the fixer, and Photo Flo.

 

[Waterman100]

Thanks for the quick responses. I am buying the chemicals now 🙂

 

[imokruok]

No problem with NYC water. The chemicals you're mixing are intended to work with tap water, plus, NYC water is excellent with low particulate and other chemicals.

 

[degruyl]

No problem with NYC water. The chemicals you're mixing are intended to work with tap water, plus, NYC water is excellent with low particulate and other chemicals.

Unless you have crappy pipes. In that case, a filter might be useful.

On a side note, I always mix my chemicals with distilled water. I am not sure this does anything useful for normal film. It is something I do because of bad results with alternative process printing (and because I have a - water - still).

I also use a water stop for film. I, however, use fixer with hardener because it does help a bit preventing scratches with sheet film. (Speed fixer + alum hardener).