X-ray developer vs normal film developer

[brooksy69]

To many this will sound a dumb question, so please bear with me. I am interested in developing my own BW film (then scaning the neg, so not too worried about paper devloper). I have assembled most of the stuff I need via fleabay - developing tank etc, and got loads of glassware I borrowed from my work to give it a go. Now I am just waiting on buying some developer and fixer. At work, I have access to X-ray developer and fixer - its Kodak GPX (or GBX, cant remember which), and also some Afga stuff (for an automatic developer) - I use these for a couple of the techniques I use at work which use Xray film. What are people opinions or even experiences on using this for camera film - from what I understand different chemisties will affect film in different ways, so would be interested to know if this would be suitable.


The advice I recieved on my previous post re what rf was great - went for the fed-2 option, which I am really pleased with, and also got a canonet 28 at a cheap price - waiting to replace the ligh seals on that before I get going.

 

[Stephan]

Interesting, I'm just posting here to subscribe to the thread actually 😀 Welcome aboard 🙂

 

[markinlondon]

I could be wrong here, but I think x-ray developers are designed to give high contrast, and would thus be unsuitable for pictorial photography. Anyone with more experience? This is an interesting one!

Mark

 

[varjag]

Nothing prevents giving it a try.

Shoot a test roll and cut it into several pieces to pick development time and dilution. If the results are too contrasty you need to dilute more.

Fixer would probably work just fine on any BW film.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

I often xpro (that is 'crossprocess'). Give it a try.

 

[Poptart]

XRay film developer is probably like graphic arts & microfilm film developers which try to get a line copy result. If you add a restrainer to the developer (like potassium bromide) and perhaps a bit of softer-working developing agent (like Metol), then water it down at least 1:1, you'll get a more full-contrast result. If the grain is too pronounced you can try a 100g of sodium sulfite which will also help keep the developer from oxidizing in the bottle.