I love it when a plan comes together

mfunnell

Shaken, so blurred
Local time
4:25 PM
Joined
Sep 23, 2006
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Location
Sydney, Australia
(With apologies to the A-Team. I'm B material on my better days, but usually come in further along the alphabet.)

For reasons I won't bore you with, I decided to develop some Ilford XP2 Super at home today - with absolutely no idea how to proceed. The only developer I had to hand was HC-110 (well, I have some LC29 that's too old to trust, and bought some D76 today but don't have anything large enough to mix a gallon in yet).

I'll admit I wasn't exhaustive, but I did Google just in case someone had some recommendations - but didn't find anything obvious.

So I paused for thought. I figure that if the Covington Page doesn't address XP2, it at least points out that 6.3ml/roll of syrup is required or the developer exhausts. So I figured that one roll of XP2 Super in 300ml at Dilution E, semi-stand developed might work. Even if I really stuffed up, I figured that I couldn't much over-develop if I exhaust the developer.

So I tried 30 minutes total, agtitating by rotation only for 30 secs at min 0 and 10secs at min 10 and 20, stop with multiple water flushes then my regular 6 minute fix with Ilford Rapid Fixer at 1:9.

Despite my alleged logic I more than half expected to get clear or black film at the end. But looking at the negs, drying now, they seem pretty good. I'll have to see when I get to scanning them but they're perhaps a bit too contrasty for my taste (so I may need to adjust my times a bit; perhaps agitating less at the start) but they sure look useable.

I'll post 'em when I get around to scanning 'em.

However, it's much better than all black or all white, which I was far from sure I wouldn't achieve.

...Mike
 
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