Long life developer? or help an idiot

[Sparrow]

I spoiled two rolls of hp5 in Aculux2 last night because I lack patience, i'm an optimist and a fool!

In recent years I find I’m doing more and more c41, scanning and lab printing so don’t get through B&W chemicals as quickly, any recommendations for chemicals with a long shelf life that would allow for my more occasional usage?

[Pherdinand]

diafine is supposed to last forever, if you are careful and don't mix the two solutions at all. But maybe you are looking for stg less funky, i don't know.

[Xmas]

Rodinal is good for +25years, and if you dilute 1:100 lasts a long time
Water rinse use fresh tap water
Fast Fix has limited life, use the slow sodium thio instead

Noel

[Sparrow]

Powdered Aculux would be nice
I suppose I’m getting lazy I was hoping for a “two tea spoons per litre” solution (pun intended) that someone had already chased down with hours of research

[Pherdinand]

Really, if you have a powder developer i would expect it lasts long and you could figure out the amount needed to mix up for one shot, instead of mixing the whole thing up for a stock solution.

[Sparrow]

Rodinal is good for +25years, and if you dilute 1:100 lasts a long time
Water rinse use fresh tap water
Fast Fix has limited life, use the slow sodium thio instead

Noel

Would hp5 in Rodinal scan well do you know?

[Sparrow]

Really, if you have a powder developer i would expect it lasts long and you could figure out the amount needed to mix up for one shot, instead of mixing the whole thing up for a stock solution.

Sorry Powdered Aculux was my wishful thinking

[Pherdinand]

maybe you can powderize it?:D
or pulverize it, or posderify it or whatever.

[markinlondon]

A litre of stock ID-11 reused carefully will give you 10-12 rolls and last a good six months if you exclude air from the bottle. It depends how you feel about reusing developer. Otherwise I can highly recommend HP5 in HC110 dilution h, you'll get up to 200 35mm rolls from a litre bottle and it's known to not go off for years.

[Xmas]

HP5 in Rodinal can be grainy, the 1:100 I use does not help, but I both enlarge wet and scan.

If you want 2x3 foot posters you need FP4 or PanF...

Noel

[Socke]

Would hp5 in Rodinal scan well do you know?

As far as I know Rodinal increases grain, or makes the grain more prominent and with sharper edges. So I use it for slower films, mostly FP4 and APX100, which scan very good.

[Wayne R. Scott]

Diafine for a long lasting developer. 3 minutes in solution A then 3 minutes in solution B. As long as solution A is not polluted by solution B the developer is still good. You will run out of solution A before you run out of solution B. The dry film absorbs more of the solution A than the wet film absorbs the solution B. I have used Diafine that is up to 1 year old and it still worked. I have heard of others using even older batches. Just ignore the color change in the solutions:).

HP5+ has an ISO of 800 when developed in Diafine. I can't answer how the negatives scan.

Wayne

[JCT]

I agree with markinlondon -- I've had excellent results with HP5+ and HC-110 dil h .

JT

[ZorkiKat]

Would hp5 in Rodinal scan well do you know?


I found that, generally speaking, negatives developed in highly diluted rodinal (ca. 1+40...1+100) scan better. Negatives with thinner maximum densities, longer tonal ranges, and contrast compensation scan so easily without worries of clipped highlights or bulletproof shadows in the digital positives.

Jay

[Sparrow]

Thanks everybody, I think I’ll give HP5 in HC110 a go first, any suggestion on the dilution? at the same time I’ll try some xp2 and see which scans best, the xp2 may work out more cost effective overall

[ZorkiKat]

Thanks everybody, I think I’ll give HP5 in HC110 a go first, any suggestion on the dilution?


Try 1+63 (1 part concentrate + 63 parts water). I've even tried 1+70. Yes, they do scan well. Note that the dilution refers to the US version of HC110. I've read somewhere that European HC110 may have a different concentration.


Jay

[Sparrow]

Try 1+63 (1 part concentrate + 63 parts water). I've even tried 1+70. Yes, they do scan well. Note that the dilution refers to the US version of HC110. I've read somewhere that European HC110 may have a different concentration.


Jay


Thanks I just found a very encouraging old thread on pnet using HP5+ (rated ISO400) in HC-110 1:63 for 9min @ 68F.

[markinlondon]

Here's a few samples from my recent HC-110 experiments, Stewart. The Covington page will explain the dilutions.

HP5+ EI200 HC-110 1:63 8 mins (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/159/329949226_bf0bb9d012_o.jpg)

HP5+ EI800 HC-110 1:31 Ilford recommended time (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/141/329949454_fde0db4101_o.jpg)

HP5+ EI1600 HC-110 1:31 Ilford recommended time (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/100/309024821_15ae1d7faf_o.jpg). About a stop overexposed (oops)

[Sparrow]

Hi Mark the marine band looks very smooth, with good detail in both the shadows and highlights, what’s the grain like at 1600? it looks good on the scan

[T_om]

Diafine lasts a LONG time and gives you all the inherent speed available from the film.

On top of that, it produces negatives with a long tonal range that scan beautifully. As a matter of fact, most people have fewer problems scanning and printing with Diafine than wet printing in a darkroom directly from the negative.

Tom

[markinlondon]

I've often found that the highlights form HP5+ can be a bit tricky, so to speak, until I started using HC-110 dil h. This seems to produce much better highlight separation and prints much more easily than my previous HP5 efforts. I've a pile of 7x5 prints from that roll at EI1600, I can honestly say I can't see the grain on the prints and the tones hang together through an 8x loupe (approx 40x enlargement).

[Sparrow]

That’s why I ended up with Aculux, and subsequently the two rolls of completely clear film last night, it is the ease of scanning and highlight detail that was making me consider xp2, I’m assuming it’s as forgiving as the colour c41 films

[visiondr]

In order to make HC-110 last longer I use glass marbles dropped into the bottle to displace the volume of concentrate I draw out for each developing session. That way, there is essentially no more air in the bottle than when originally full. Be sure to wash and rinse the marbles first.

Ron

[Max Power]

HotRod and DD-X last a long time opened in cool dark conditions.