Stand Development

[MDenton]

Is Rodinal the only developer suitable for the stand development process ?

 

[rogue_designer]

HC-110 in low dilutions certainly works too. I regularly use 1:100 in semi stand.

I believe some people have used pyro developers in stand configurations to good effect as well.

 

[petronius]

I use it 1+100 for stand development:
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69966

 

[jwhitley]

Speaking of pyro developers, I've been using Pyrocat-HD as my standard developer. I've had great results with stand and semi-stand development of roll films. I do rotary processing for 4x5 sheet film, and Pyrocat is a champ there as well. I'd like to do stand with sheet film, but am not set up for that yet.

There are a few articles on Pyrocat-HD on Unblinking Eye, and a ton more info available via Google (see APUG articles, especially). The formula is freely available if you want the greatest economy, or just like mixing from scratch. It's also available via Photographer's Formulary; so far I've just bought the liquid Pyrocat-HD in Glycol. The version mixed in glycol is identical to the water-mixed Pyrocat, but has a vastly longer shelf life at the same price... so it's something of a no-brainer.

Pyrocat-HD is popular enough that it's also got starting dev times for a wide range of films in The Massive Dev Chart.

 

[Tom A]

I did about 500 rolls last year (35mm) in Pyrocat HD and really liked it. Very even developer and nice sharp edged negatives. It has a fairly substantial life span - about 5 month, but when it goes, it goes fast. Unless you do a lot of film, mix up 3 month supply rather than larger volumes.
I did try it as stand developing, but as I use Paterson reels, I ended up with a lot of fried edges! Too lazy to switch to stainless reels.
There is a lot of stuff on Flickr done with Pyrocat HD. I haven't seen any large format stuff, but a friend uses it for 4x5 and his prints are stunning. Mind you, he is also a master printer, which helps!
I found myself using it mainly on Kodak's XX (250 asa movie stock) and Tri X and some Neopan 400 Presto, as these are my mainstays when it comes to 35mm film. I still prefer Beutler for slower films (Acros/+X/Pan F/EFKE).
Just did a quick "tag" on Flickr re Pyrocat HD. I have 1250+ shots up on my site only!!!! I didn't realize that there were that many. There are several more shooters using it. For stand development tag "Pyrocat HD" and Stand development".

 

[clayne]

Part of the fun of shooting and processing your own film is in experimentation,
like pushing Acros 100 by 4 stops and stand developing for 2 hours in XTOL:


Nikon F3HP + Nikkor 35mm f/2.0 AIS, Fujifilm Acros 100@1600, Kodak XTOL 1+3

 

[Tom A]

I just did a batch of 25 rolls with Rodinal 1:100 stand development. Initial rolls (Neopan 1600 @1200/Tri X/Acros 100@200/ some XX) were done for 60 minutes, then I did sets of five rolls, adding Sodium Sulphite in 30 gr/50gr/75gr and finally 100gr/1000 ml of Rodinal 1:100. I was also cutting times to see what happened, 60min/45min/30min/25min.
They all came out OK, but some problem with fried edges on XX/TriX and I initially thought it was my Paterson reels acting up - but somebody suggested internal flare from my Nikon Coolscan 5000 due to heavily curved negs. Need to check on that. The bonus was that Neopan 1600 @ 1200 looks really nice, particularly in the 1:100/10% sodium Sulphite and 25 minutes stand (one "flip and shake" of the tank at the 1/2 way mark).
The shots are on our Flickr site for anyone who wants too see what it looks like.
The premise of the experiment was a/there was some really ugly looking Rodinal left in a bottle (about 125 ml in a 500ml bottle) and b/ while waiting for the allotted times to come up, I cleaned the darkroom. It is now clean and I can go back to more normal procedures - though I think there is enough to do one more run in a 5 reel Paterson tank(1500 ml) - I think this time I will try continious agitation for 15-16 min.

 

[ChrisN]

I'd like to know if anyone has tried Ilford LC29 with stand development at high dilutions?

 

[Chris101]

I've never used Ilford developers. I do use stand development for up to an hour and a quarter with coffee developer.

 

[delft]

I'd like to know if anyone has tried Ilford LC29 with stand development at high dilutions?

I think LC29 is equivalent to HC110 in a different concentration, so if hc110 at 1:100 works, LC29 should also do the trick (at another dilution).

Greetings,
Dirk

 

[ChrisN]

Thanks Dirk

I think I'm just going to have to try it. I'll shoot a short roll of something tomorrow and give it a go at 1:100 for an hour, and see what happens. 🙂

 

[delft]

Thanks Dirk

I think I'm just going to have to try it. I'll shoot a short roll of something tomorrow and give it a go at 1:100 for an hour, and see what happens. 🙂

You're welcome, Chris.
I've found 2 references saying LC29 is equivalent to HC110 diluted 1.6 times. If you want the effect of HC110 1:100, you'll need to dilute LC29 about 1:62 but I didn't have my coffee yet, so you'd better check my math.

Good luck,
Dirk

 

[ChrisN]

I suspect that by the time you've diluted it to 1:62, diluting it further won't make much difference. My best results so far with stand development have been with Rodinal at 1+200, rather than the oft-recommended 1+100 (samples here). We'll see if I have something to share by Sunday night!

 

[russianRF]

I suspect that by the time you've diluted it to 1:62, diluting it further won't make much difference. My best results so far with stand development have been with Rodinal at 1+200, rather than the oft-recommended 1+100 (samples here). We'll see if I have something to share by Sunday night!

Those are some impressive samples. I have a stand dev question for you -- do you do semi-stand? In other words, do you shake a bit at the beginning, shake a bit again at the 30 minute mark, and then again at the end of the hour? Or do you have a different time/agitation process for 1+200. And another, final question -- I assume that you throw the 10ml/roll minimum guideline out the window in 1+200 development? I'm so scared about violating the rule that I can't bring myself to do true 1+100, but rather use 8ml per 600ml of water (still not 10ml/roll, but closer).

 

[ChrisN]

Those are some impressive samples. I have a stand dev question for you -- do you do semi-stand? In other words, do you shake a bit at the beginning, shake a bit again at the 30 minute mark, and then again at the end of the hour? Or do you have a different time/agitation process for 1+200. And another, final question -- I assume that you throw the 10ml/roll minimum guideline out the window in 1+200 development? I'm so scared about violating the rule that I can't bring myself to do true 1+100, but rather use 8ml per 600ml of water (still not 10ml/roll, but closer).

I'm pretty much a newbie at this, but yes, this was semi-stand, with 30 seconds of normal agitation at the start, and 15 seconds of gentle swirling of the tank at 30 minutes, then left alone until poured out at 1 hour.

I used 500ml of developer solution in the tank, so, yes, total Rodinal was certainly less than 10ml.

 

[ChrisN]

OK - here's the results. The last shot was probably underexposed half to one stop (problem with my metering).

Delta 100 @ 100 iso, semi-stand development in Ilford LC29 1+100 at 20 celcius for one hour, 30 seconds of agitation to start, 15 seconds of gentle swirling after 30 minutes, then don't touch the tank until the hour is up.

I'm pretty happy with that. 🙂

I need to try this with some different films, but I think it might be a viable alternative to Rodinal for this stand development thing. I can't buy Rodinal locally, whereas LC29 is available, and by far the cheapest liquid developer I can easily get my hands on.