It's getting hot these days ...

Hi steamer (and everyone),

I think you've got a lot of great feedback here, so my two cents won't add much, but here they are. It's mainly a variation on Bill's, nikon_sam's, colyn's, and everyone's suggestions:

Back in photo school we used to buy a bag of ice (if we were broke we'd chip in and share a bag) and dump it in a plastic tub like the one's you'd use to wash dishes. We'd then use metal martini shakers (bought cheaply at a kitchen supply place - just make sure to label them and don't mix any drinks in them) to hold each of the chemicals. We were using metal tanks for roll film, and the stainless steel is a good conductor so everything cooled down quickly. Washing was a bit tougher as we relied on tap water, so we'd use the cold water first (also cooled in a shaker) and then slowly add in warmer (tap) water to try to shift to the higher temperatue. It worked pretty well with 35mm and 120...I tried it with 4x5 but it was a lot trickier to do in total darkness (I made gaffer tape sripes on the outside of the shakers to let me know which chemical was in each shaker).

My students use plastic tanks, which insulate much better, and this technique isn't useful. I don't know what kind of tank you use, but the metal beaker/shaker thing might help. If it doesn't, there's plenty of good advice above to help you get things cooler and under control. Good luck and have fun.

Andrew
 
Steamer-
I am new to developing myself- only been doing it for a month or so. Though it may change as time goes on, what works for me at this point is a dish pan 3/4 full of tap water, a large bowl of ice, added as needed to get to and maintain 68F/20C. I put enough developer and fixer in 1 liter bottles, and set them in the pan, for an hour or two, until they're at temperature. I then use that water for rinsing, too. Since I have two dishpans, I keep them stacked for added insulation.
I have to plan ahead a little, but it works. I tried putting them in the fridge ahead of time, but I left them in too long... this works for me.

Nice shots, BTW.
Acros rocks.
 
Well, I'm a newbie into B&W, have deevloped only one film so far (Tri-X in HC-110), to my satisfaction, but steamer's question has been raised in my mind also...
I understand the techniques to cool down the solutions prior to usage and also struggled to bring their temps to 20 degrees from 25-26 which is the native tap water temperature in my area.
However, what bugs me is the fact that once filled into tank for processing, cooled to 20 degress liquids must gain the temp back to the environmental quite quickly during the processing...for instance, I managed to cool down the developer solution to necessary 20 degrees, poor it into the tank for development which takes, say, 6.5 minutes. During that time, the temp of the solution in the tank will raise invariably but 2-3 degrees (if not more...), so the temperature consistancy has been lost. The sames goes for fixer...

What can we do about that ? What do you think ?
 
I open up the darkroom windows at night, then close 'em up in the morning. This keeps me closer to 68/20. I also run developers at 1:1, and mix with cooler water to balance out. I'll cool down the stop bath half-way between my developer and fixer, to ease the transition, and then wash up a little warmer than normal to even out the differences.
 
Alexz- I believe if the developer warms up significantly by the end of the develop time, you're supposed to shave off a percentage of the processing length. I'm sure someone here knows the formula. I would look it up if I could remember where I read it...

🙄
 
Thank you.
Well , actually, fixer warmign up doesn't bother me as much as warming up of the developer durign the development. Fixer timing is more forgiving then the one of developing (which is consider the most critical processing step), thta lead me to believe temp stability of the developing stage is more critical then that of fixing (I may be wrong though...).
Perhaps what I can infer from your (Madrigal) statement above, the development time might be somewhat reduced due to the temp. change during the development stage. However how exactly it can be considered to shortened out isn't clear for me given continuous temp change during he process....perhaps the question of trial and error...
 
Better to keep the temp for the fixer too and for the rinsing also.
If you want the scientific time shift for developing relative to the temp change:

dev time T2 = dev time T1 x e^-(T2 - T1). If T1> T2, change to (T1-T2)
 
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