Tom R
Established
In the mid 1990’s I worked in the AI Lab at MIT (doing language design for concurrent MIMD stuff … blah, blah, blah.) IIRC, on every first Thursday of the month we had faculty/staff lunches, and sometimes Noam Chomsky would attend these affairs. Here’s what I recall about him: he never talked about grammars, or theoretical linguistics; he would, at a drop of the hat, offer any number of insights and opinions about politics.
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Bingley
Veteran
Just saw your comment. Many thanks! “Cottonwood” was made with an M6, a Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f1.4 MC, and Delta @ 400. “Path in Winter” was made with a Leica IIIc, a red scale Elmar 5cm f3.5 with a yellow filter, and FP4+ @ 200.
Lillion
Newbie
Great pix. Would you mind sharing dev time and agitation?XTOL is really nice. Especially for scanned negatives. Flat dense negs with wide latitude give the most freedom in LR. Also, grain reduction is a plus (with grainy films), and it's nicer for your watershed/planet.
Jenny by Jim Fischer, on Flickr
Nikon F2, Nikkor 55mm f/3.5, Eastman-5222, Xtol 1:1
Zuzu & Brian by Jim Fischer, on Flickr
Leica M7, Voigtlander 50mm f/1 Nokton VM, Eastman-5222, Xtol 1:1.
Man on Ferry by Jim Fischer, on Flickr
Leica M5, Light Lens Lab 50mm f/2 'Elcan,' Kodak T-Max 400, Xtol 1:1
Slumgullion
Well-known
Thanks.
I meter for Eastman-5222/XX at 200ish. Develop in XTOL 1:1 at 20 degrees C. Continuous agitation for first 30 seconds. 5 vigorous inversions at 1:00, 1:30, 2:00 and 2:30. Then three gentle/slow inversions every thirty seconds until 9:45, then dump and stopbath, etc.
I meter for T-Max 400 at 320. Develop in XTOL 1:1 at 20 degrees C. Continuous agitation for first 30 seconds. 5 vigorous inversions at 1:00, 1:30, 2:00 and 2:30. Then three gentle/slow inversions every thirty seconds until 9:00, then dump and stopbath, etc.
Lillion
Newbie
Thanks for your quick answering. Really appreciate it
Doug A
Well-known
My favorite film developer is Rodinal. I have been using it for both 35mm and 120 film since I built my first darkroom in 1968. I have tried many other developers but when I compare the resulting prints I always go back to Rodinal. Besides which, it is dirt cheap (14 cents a roll at Freestyle's current price) and lasts forever in full or partially filled bottles.
I am talking about real Rodinal not "R09" or "Special" (I am using Adox). Check the MSDS. Real Rodinal has 4-aminophenol as the only developing agent.
I am currently down to my last working 125ml bottle of Rodinal. When it is finished I will open the 500ml bottle I have in a cool dark space and decant it into four 125ml bottles and buy another 500ml bottle. I use the small bottles not because of any issues with longevity but because it's easier to draw out small amounts with a syringe. The Rodinal in that last little bottle is at least two years old. It is darker than when I filled the bottle but there is absolutely no change in how it works.
I am talking about real Rodinal not "R09" or "Special" (I am using Adox). Check the MSDS. Real Rodinal has 4-aminophenol as the only developing agent.
I am currently down to my last working 125ml bottle of Rodinal. When it is finished I will open the 500ml bottle I have in a cool dark space and decant it into four 125ml bottles and buy another 500ml bottle. I use the small bottles not because of any issues with longevity but because it's easier to draw out small amounts with a syringe. The Rodinal in that last little bottle is at least two years old. It is darker than when I filled the bottle but there is absolutely no change in how it works.
mdarnton
Well-known
Tri-X and similar films at EI250 or so, developing in home-brewed D76, pulled about 15%, once a minute agitation. It gives a lot of shadow detail and crisp, detailed highlights (and in the darkroom I always bleached them out a bit more for contrast and detail, doing the same now in Photoshop), and that's the combination that works for me. The idea of Tri-X @ EI250 + pulled D76 came from David Vestal, at a workshop I took with him in the early 70s and once I tried it there was never a reason to quit. For large format xray film it's D23 because of its lower contrast (xray film is very high contrast), ease of making, and low cost, but for me it doesn't enough highlight brilliance when used with Tri-X. Maybe as a two-part. . . I never got along with the highlight behavior of T-films, unfortunately, because they're pretty nice otherwise.
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yanchep_mike
Always Trying
What works for me: 35mm in X-Tol 1+1, MF and LF in D-76 1+1.
Thats it.
Thats it.
Rayt
Nonplayer Character
I have settled on Rodinal and DDX depending on the film.
ChrisPlatt
Thread Killer
For decades I have used only long shelf-life concentrates, e.g. HC110 and Rodinal.
IMO this is the only type that makes sense for an occasional sporadic user like me.
Chris
IMO this is the only type that makes sense for an occasional sporadic user like me.
Chris
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Doug A
Well-known
Wow! There's quite a difference in price there.
Rayt
Nonplayer Character
Wow! There's quite a difference in price there.
DDX is crazy expensive! I haven’t shot large format since a few years ago but DDX 1:9 or 1:7 works remarkably well with HP5+ sheet film with tray development. It’s too precious for 1:4 ratio and not necessary. And it can be reused at 1:4 but 1:7/1:9 one shot is preferable. Before DDX I used HC110 until the reformulation. When Kodak switched to the round bottle there was no stock for a long time so had to move on. I prefer to shoot iso400 film with large format and medium but if I had to choose one then Rodinal can do almost anything except if you need speed.
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Erik van Straten
Veteran
Ilford Perceptol. I haven't tried the others.
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DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
Wow... I've read through this entire thread, and came to the conclusion that there must be as many developers, and variations of these, as there are photographers. The scope is endless.
I now feel like something left over from the Jurassic era. Throughout my decades in a darkroom I've tended to the more 'traditional' developers, initially by Kodak, then Ilford, then home-brewed. As I went along I modified my processing tactics (I especially dislike the term 'technique) to suit the lighting I photograph in. Nowadays mostly Australia or SE Asia. So harsh light.
In the '60s I used Kodak Dk60a, which was locally available and cheap (CDN $0.98 cents for a gallon can in 1965 IRRC) but gave me negs I can still print and scan well. Not a fine-grain developer but I was using 120 films then, so go figure.
Late '60s I went over to a Ron Spillman (UK) two bath developer which did more what I wanted in sharp, well-definite (grain) images for my growing art print sale business.
Fast track to Australia in the mid-'70s onwards. Ilford ID11/Kodak D76 became my preferred 'soups' and I stayed with these for almost two decades. Now and then I chopped and changed. In the mid-'80s I moved on to TXP and HP5 in Rodinal. I must have been doing something wrong, because nowadays when I try to scan or print (mostly 35mm) negs from this combo, I find grain of a size suitable to put in a table salt grinder. Silly me, in 1988 I photographed extensively in Bali and Java (Indonesia) with TXP in a Leica M2 with a '50 Summicron, a kit I loved (sadly, no longer own). Of course I processed it all in Rodinal. Today if I wang to work with any of those images I have to do a huge amount of post-processing - I gave up on enlarging them on FB paper long ago.
In the '90s I changed again, partly back to D76, mostly to two bath, this time the Barry Thornton 2B developer. I also experimented a bit with other brews. Kodak TMax was fine but I had to keep the bottle in a fridge or it would deteriorate. Ditto HC110 which didn't expire as quickly but I found working out the formulations and times too complex for my liking. So back to the old standards it was.
In around 2001 I helped an old friend, now deceased, who was archiving his lifetime of beautiful Australian landscape images. We made hundreds of art prints. I admired the tonality of his negatives and noticed how easily they printed/scanned. He told me he had used an old Agfa-Ansco MQ developer formula since the 1950s, and added the advice, "develop it all for 7 minutes."
IN 2004 I went to Jobo and experimented with various formulas. temperature-time consistency improved my results, but I then started getting bromide drag. Two devils down, one new devil to deal with. Such is life. The Jobos were ideal for C41 and E6 but I ceased doing color in the mid-'00s.
These days I use maybe 20 rolls of B&W film in any one year. Mostly 120. My late friend-mentor's Agfa-Ansco formula suits me well. I save up to ten exposed films (safely in my fridge) for one processing session and mix a liter batch of this stuff from basic chemistry.
Sadly, after many decades in the darkroom I no longer have the same passion as I did for doing it all in the dark. At my age life is just too short and there are too many other things I want to do before I get recycled to cloud land. Processing film is fine as I can do my tanks in a dark bag and do the rest in my kitchen. I have, at last count, two sealed bulk cans of Kodak Panatomic-X, one of Plus-X, one of TXP, and about 100 rolls of 'mixed bag' B&W films, mostly Kodak and Ilford. With luck I will be around long enough to use all this up, and process everything with the bulk chemicals I have safely stored in our temperature controlled garage. So life's good.
If asked for advice about all this (TBH I prefer not to be consulted on anything any more, that's just me) I fall back on my time-and-again tested dictum of 7 minutes. Which seems to work for me. The KISS principle does work on some things...
I now feel like something left over from the Jurassic era. Throughout my decades in a darkroom I've tended to the more 'traditional' developers, initially by Kodak, then Ilford, then home-brewed. As I went along I modified my processing tactics (I especially dislike the term 'technique) to suit the lighting I photograph in. Nowadays mostly Australia or SE Asia. So harsh light.
In the '60s I used Kodak Dk60a, which was locally available and cheap (CDN $0.98 cents for a gallon can in 1965 IRRC) but gave me negs I can still print and scan well. Not a fine-grain developer but I was using 120 films then, so go figure.
Late '60s I went over to a Ron Spillman (UK) two bath developer which did more what I wanted in sharp, well-definite (grain) images for my growing art print sale business.
Fast track to Australia in the mid-'70s onwards. Ilford ID11/Kodak D76 became my preferred 'soups' and I stayed with these for almost two decades. Now and then I chopped and changed. In the mid-'80s I moved on to TXP and HP5 in Rodinal. I must have been doing something wrong, because nowadays when I try to scan or print (mostly 35mm) negs from this combo, I find grain of a size suitable to put in a table salt grinder. Silly me, in 1988 I photographed extensively in Bali and Java (Indonesia) with TXP in a Leica M2 with a '50 Summicron, a kit I loved (sadly, no longer own). Of course I processed it all in Rodinal. Today if I wang to work with any of those images I have to do a huge amount of post-processing - I gave up on enlarging them on FB paper long ago.
In the '90s I changed again, partly back to D76, mostly to two bath, this time the Barry Thornton 2B developer. I also experimented a bit with other brews. Kodak TMax was fine but I had to keep the bottle in a fridge or it would deteriorate. Ditto HC110 which didn't expire as quickly but I found working out the formulations and times too complex for my liking. So back to the old standards it was.
In around 2001 I helped an old friend, now deceased, who was archiving his lifetime of beautiful Australian landscape images. We made hundreds of art prints. I admired the tonality of his negatives and noticed how easily they printed/scanned. He told me he had used an old Agfa-Ansco MQ developer formula since the 1950s, and added the advice, "develop it all for 7 minutes."
IN 2004 I went to Jobo and experimented with various formulas. temperature-time consistency improved my results, but I then started getting bromide drag. Two devils down, one new devil to deal with. Such is life. The Jobos were ideal for C41 and E6 but I ceased doing color in the mid-'00s.
These days I use maybe 20 rolls of B&W film in any one year. Mostly 120. My late friend-mentor's Agfa-Ansco formula suits me well. I save up to ten exposed films (safely in my fridge) for one processing session and mix a liter batch of this stuff from basic chemistry.
Sadly, after many decades in the darkroom I no longer have the same passion as I did for doing it all in the dark. At my age life is just too short and there are too many other things I want to do before I get recycled to cloud land. Processing film is fine as I can do my tanks in a dark bag and do the rest in my kitchen. I have, at last count, two sealed bulk cans of Kodak Panatomic-X, one of Plus-X, one of TXP, and about 100 rolls of 'mixed bag' B&W films, mostly Kodak and Ilford. With luck I will be around long enough to use all this up, and process everything with the bulk chemicals I have safely stored in our temperature controlled garage. So life's good.
If asked for advice about all this (TBH I prefer not to be consulted on anything any more, that's just me) I fall back on my time-and-again tested dictum of 7 minutes. Which seems to work for me. The KISS principle does work on some things...
chuckroast
Well-known
Can you share your Agfa-Ansco MQ magic sauce with the class, please?
Godfrey
somewhat colored
I processed my third roll of Ferrania P33 the other day and it came out absolutely perfect. Based on the experience with Roll 2, I exposed at EI 160, mixed up my usual HC-110 @ 1:49, and processed in an Agfa Rondix tank (continuous agitation) for 9 minutes at 68-70°F. I could not ask for better negatives! (... although I could actually make some more exciting photographs! LOL!)
Window, Wall, Reflection - Santa Clara 2024
Leica M4-2 + SMC-Pentax-L 43mm f/1.9 Special
Ferrania P33 @ EI160
HC-110 @ 1:49, 68°, 9 minutes
enjoy! G
Window, Wall, Reflection - Santa Clara 2024
Leica M4-2 + SMC-Pentax-L 43mm f/1.9 Special
Ferrania P33 @ EI160
HC-110 @ 1:49, 68°, 9 minutes
enjoy! G