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B&W film developing
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 10:31 am
by Nancy B
In the recent past, I've used D76 developer because it's what I had free access to with my camera club, but I think I would like to try something different at home.
What I want is a developer that provides good contrast, little grain and nice tone. Also, if you have personal experience with developers, using different ratios and developing times to produce the effect I want, I'd be very interested to hear about that.
Re: B&W film developing
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 10:42 am
by Captain Slack
Re: B&W film developing
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 1:30 pm
by LarryD
Try Xtol I love it 1-1.
Re: B&W film developing
Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 10:10 pm
by Julio1fer
I tend to think in terms of film and developer combinations. This is my experience, based in what you ask for:
If you can prepare from powder, D-76 ir Ilford's ID-11 would be the best choice IMHO. Those two will work well with almost any classic film; for me, theyr are not the best for tabular-grain film, although many people say they work well.
HC-110 would probably be more convenient, as it is a liquid concentrate, and it is a classic combo with Tri-X or HP5+
T-Max developer is good with tabular grain film (TMX, TMY, Delta, etc).
Rodinal and its equivalents are excellent for classic lower ISO films, such as FP4+, Pan F+. Not really fine grain, though. But with PanF+...
Avoid Rodinal and TMY (bad grain, salt and pepper).
Re: B&W film developing
Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 5:34 am
by Bennybee
Another vote for HC-110. I bought a 1-litre bottle 5 (!) years ago because I needed a developer that kept well. Since I don't shoot enough film I always needed to throw away unused developer stock solution. The HC-110 has now yellowed in the bottle over the years, but last time I used it (a month or so ago) it still worked fine.
Re: B&W film developing
Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 9:03 am
by scott
Yeah, HC-110 is the shiznitz. Cheap, easy to use, responds well to tweaking of times. And my experience is also Julio's - it's a film/developer combo that you need to look at. I use Arista film a lot in LF; I have the developing dialed in with HC-110, but I tried D76 for a while and got junk results.
Re: B&W film developing
Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 10:36 am
by Bennybee
BTW, here's a trick to keep out as much air as possible out of a less-than-full bottle of HC-110 : throw some marbles in it till the level of developer reaches the top of the bottle again.
Re: B&W film developing
Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:32 pm
by Nancy B
Thanks guys, I'll get some HC-110, because I also won't be developing that much film, and it has to keep a long time, plus I tend to favour Ilford HP5 film.
BennyBee, That trick with the marbles is a good idea!
So now that I've decided on the developer, what ratio of water to developer should I use, and should I do the usual agitation schedule, or should I do stand developing, which I've never done?
Re: B&W film developing
Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 9:17 pm
by LarryD
This should help you but Mike Bitaxi and I have used many dilutions of HC-110 so you can ask him or me over at FB.
http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I would start with Dilution B as it is a classic. If you find the times too short use Dilution H the instructions are on the link I gave you.
Re: B&W film developing
Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2014 3:05 am
by Bennybee
Nancy,
I like to refer to The Massive Development Chart at
http://www.digitaltruth.com
Many moons ago I also printed the detailed and very useful instructions for diluting HC-110 from the Kodak website :
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professi ... 24/j24.pdf