Long life developer? or help an idiot

[Sparrow]

I spoiled two rolls of hp5 in Aculux2 last night because I lack patience, i'm an optimist and a fool!

In recent years I find I’m doing more and more c41, scanning and lab printing so don’t get through B&W chemicals as quickly, any recommendations for chemicals with a long shelf life that would allow for my more occasional usage?

 

[Pherdinand]

diafine is supposed to last forever, if you are careful and don't mix the two solutions at all. But maybe you are looking for stg less funky, i don't know.

 

[Xmas]

Rodinal is good for +25years, and if you dilute 1:100 lasts a long time
Water rinse use fresh tap water
Fast Fix has limited life, use the slow sodium thio instead

Noel

 

[Sparrow]

Powdered Aculux would be nice
I suppose I’m getting lazy I was hoping for a “two tea spoons per litre” solution (pun intended) that someone had already chased down with hours of research

 

[Pherdinand]

Really, if you have a powder developer i would expect it lasts long and you could figure out the amount needed to mix up for one shot, instead of mixing the whole thing up for a stock solution.

 

[Sparrow]

Rodinal is good for +25years, and if you dilute 1:100 lasts a long time
Water rinse use fresh tap water
Fast Fix has limited life, use the slow sodium thio instead

Noel

Would hp5 in Rodinal scan well do you know?

 

[Sparrow]

Really, if you have a powder developer i would expect it lasts long and you could figure out the amount needed to mix up for one shot, instead of mixing the whole thing up for a stock solution.

Sorry Powdered Aculux was my wishful thinking

 

[Pherdinand]

maybe you can powderize it?😀
or pulverize it, or posderify it or whatever.

 

[markinlondon]

A litre of stock ID-11 reused carefully will give you 10-12 rolls and last a good six months if you exclude air from the bottle. It depends how you feel about reusing developer. Otherwise I can highly recommend HP5 in HC110 dilution h, you'll get up to 200 35mm rolls from a litre bottle and it's known to not go off for years.

 

[Xmas]

HP5 in Rodinal can be grainy, the 1:100 I use does not help, but I both enlarge wet and scan.

If you want 2x3 foot posters you need FP4 or PanF...

Noel

 

[Socke]

Would hp5 in Rodinal scan well do you know?

As far as I know Rodinal increases grain, or makes the grain more prominent and with sharper edges. So I use it for slower films, mostly FP4 and APX100, which scan very good.

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

Diafine for a long lasting developer. 3 minutes in solution A then 3 minutes in solution B. As long as solution A is not polluted by solution B the developer is still good. You will run out of solution A before you run out of solution B. The dry film absorbs more of the solution A than the wet film absorbs the solution B. I have used Diafine that is up to 1 year old and it still worked. I have heard of others using even older batches. Just ignore the color change in the solutions🙂.

HP5+ has an ISO of 800 when developed in Diafine. I can't answer how the negatives scan.

Wayne

 

[JCT]

I agree with markinlondon -- I've had excellent results with HP5+ and HC-110 dil h .

JT

 

[ZorkiKat]

Would hp5 in Rodinal scan well do you know?

I found that, generally speaking, negatives developed in highly diluted rodinal (ca. 1+40...1+100) scan better. Negatives with thinner maximum densities, longer tonal ranges, and contrast compensation scan so easily without worries of clipped highlights or bulletproof shadows in the digital positives.

Jay

 

[Sparrow]

Thanks everybody, I think I’ll give HP5 in HC110 a go first, any suggestion on the dilution? at the same time I’ll try some xp2 and see which scans best, the xp2 may work out more cost effective overall

 

[ZorkiKat]

Thanks everybody, I think I’ll give HP5 in HC110 a go first, any suggestion on the dilution?

Try 1+63 (1 part concentrate + 63 parts water). I've even tried 1+70. Yes, they do scan well. Note that the dilution refers to the US version of HC110. I've read somewhere that European HC110 may have a different concentration.


Jay

 

[Sparrow]

Try 1+63 (1 part concentrate + 63 parts water). I've even tried 1+70. Yes, they do scan well. Note that the dilution refers to the US version of HC110. I've read somewhere that European HC110 may have a different concentration.


Jay

Thanks I just found a very encouraging old thread on pnet using HP5+ (rated ISO400) in HC-110 1:63 for 9min @ 68F.

 

[markinlondon]

Here's a few samples from my recent HC-110 experiments, Stewart. The Covington page will explain the dilutions.

HP5+ EI200 HC-110 1:63 8 mins

HP5+ EI800 HC-110 1:31 Ilford recommended time

HP5+ EI1600 HC-110 1:31 Ilford recommended time. About a stop overexposed (oops)

 

[Sparrow]

Hi Mark the marine band looks very smooth, with good detail in both the shadows and highlights, what’s the grain like at 1600? it looks good on the scan

 

[T_om]

Diafine lasts a LONG time and gives you all the inherent speed available from the film.

On top of that, it produces negatives with a long tonal range that scan beautifully. As a matter of fact, most people have fewer problems scanning and printing with Diafine than wet printing in a darkroom directly from the negative.

Tom