First Film Developed since 1969

[bwcolor]

Opening Kodafix brought it all back. Wow, that is more memory potent than an old girlfriend's perfume.

Loading 35mm film on a Hewes reel was a snap the first time. I use to have a darkroom, but a changing bag worked great.

In those days it was D-76 and Tri-X. Now it is Rodenal / Stand Dev / Tri-X. I shot my first roll of film since 2002 and first black and white since sixty-nine, or so. I used the same stainless tank, but new Hewes 35mm Reels.

Results are drying, but it looks like a full tonal range. Perhaps a bit dense for scanning, but looks good for wet print..which is never to be.

Questions:

I used distilled water for mixing developer, fixer and hypo. Should I be using distilled for other purposes?

Used water stop bath of 10/20/30 inversion with fresh tap water each time. Is this sufficient?

Do you filter the fixer/hardener returned to storage?

Do you do a final tap water wash in continuous flow, or just a few one-two minute baths in fresh tap water? Do you use distilled water as a last step/wash before drying?

Thanks... I hope that Nikon delivers my scanner rather than discontinuing it. We will see. Two weeks and no word yet.

 

[Trius]

With Rodinal dilutions I only use one stop cycle, 30 seconds, deionized water. For Final wash I use the Ilford method, three changes of water with 5, 10 and 20 inversions. I use water from my dehumidifier that I filter twice for all steps. After washing I use PhotoFlo mixed at half strength, i.e. 1:400. I don't filter the fix when returning it, but if someone gave me good reason to do so, I would consider it.

 

[mcgrattan]

With a water stop I just usually do a couple of quick fill and invert cycles with ordinary tap water. 30 seconds or so. And then, like Trius, I use the Ilford wash method. I've worked out that the water from our tap is pretty close to bang on 20 degrees if I set it a particular way, so it's quite easy to maintain a steady temperature through the various rinse and wash cycles.

I don't use distilled water for the final bath with Ilfotol, but I probably should. When I experimented with it in the past I got less drying marks.

 

[DRabbit]

I'm no expert (I'm new to this really), but I've been getting good clean results using distilled for the stop bath and then PhotoFlo mixed with distilled for the final rinse (after ilford method with tap water).

 

[Trius]

I may try Edwal LFN again, though I don't recall it being any better than PhotoFlo. Yes, PhotoFlo is a pain, but @ 1:400 it works better for me, and I use a dosing syringe, the kind for measuring the baby's liquid medicine, to get the proper volume/dilution. PhotoFlo is just easier to find, that's all.

If I filter my dehumidifier water properly, I don't really need a wetting agent for final rinse, but I use one just to be "safe".

 

[Trius]

You make a good point about residue. Scalding bot water rinses of the gear seems to work for me, but now I'm going to look for some LFN.

 

[bwcolor]

Thanks for all the help. I'll be in L.A. over this next weekend. I'll stop by FreeStyle and pickup the suggested chemicals. I just use PhotoFlow because it was in my box from years ago. All other chemicals were new.

Just found out that my scanner came off backorder and is on the way.

 

[Trius]

Yes, I use stainless, so that helps.