Sprint Standard Film Developer?

[kchoquette]

Just found out the school I'm enrolled in supplies all the photo chemicals I need to do all my developing and darkroom work, which is awesome!

The problem is, it's all Sprint based products, which I have no experience with. I don't need to know anything like dilutions, but coming from a home darkroom, using water as a stop bath, I'm curious as to what I'm going to get with my results.

Also, which films pair particularly well with Sprint? I've noticed some decreased clumpiness with HP5+ grain, which might finally bring me over to it, but I'm curious as to all your opinions on it, thanks!

 

[alfredian]

Sprint products are solid

Sprint products are solid

I use Sprint film developer a lot. It is very broad spectrum (hydroxyquinone-bases as I recall) and the one I use for the "Old School" films - Plus-X, FP4, PanF, HP5. I used Foma RO9 for Efke ("ancient school") and still use Rodinal for a crispier look.

One big plus w/Sprint is that you can mix 'n' match films in the same multireel tank. Most of the mid-speeds take 8.5 minutes @ 68F. My most recent batch of rapid fixer is a Sprint product - the stores stopped carrying Kodak Rapid Fixer and the Kodak plain stuff takes forever. You do need to buy/add the Sprint Hardener to their fixer, but it is very fast & thorough. Don't know how it ages yet.

I stop with water for Efke, and pre-stop with H2O for everything else, then a 30 sec run in Kodak Indicator bath.

The Calumet/Penn near me stopped stocking the liter bottles of film developer, so I splurged on one of the bag-in-box things. Economical, not ergonomic, so I decant into 2L jugs for convenience. Bottom line - good stuff for developing, decent grey scale, good grain & contrast, just not as snappy as Rodinal. Still prefer DDX/TMAX developer for Delta 100, but the Sprint is pretty good. The last thing may be my imagination. Sprint is good for both 35mm and 120. Enjoy. And the 1+9 thing makes life easy to calculate. -alfredian