NSFW What film developer should i use?

Sangoma said:
... but never on photographic film.
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Me neither.

Unless the film is extremely slow, I'd be surprised if you got anything useful. Or perhaps put a very dense filter in the way?
 
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Marino said:
Well it was one of these cases that i wasn’t too concerned about contrast grain or shadow/highlight detail. So I’m hoping it’ll be fine.
Tried to buy bellini yesterday but the postage is nearly the same price as the developer. I live in belfast and i only have wex photo. Bummer but I’ll just have to get over it and just buy it
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Have you considered the new Fotoimpex HC-110 clone? It is exactly the same as the newest (liquid, not sirupy) Kodak HC110 formula

Fotoimpex HC110

From the description on the website:

Kodak chemicals are temporarily unavailable this is why we purchase the original mixture made to the exact same formulary which has been sold by Kodak in the past three years.
All developing times, dilutions, factors and replenishing rates are identical and can be applied.
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There's a certain amount of exposure that a film needs before any developable image can be made. It just so happens that this doesn't have to happen all at the same time. By giving film a preexposure less than the amount required to produce an image, you give it a "step up" towards producing an image when the actual exposure is made. It's usually reckoned to be better to pre rather than post flash. Justification for statements can be found in the normal text books. I've never done it, so purely hearsay on my part.

I used to get by (in a small room) with the light from a 100w ceiling mounted bulb and an f/2.8 lens at night. Sometimes adding a desk lamp.
 
Marino said:
Well it was one of these cases that i wasn’t too concerned about contrast grain or shadow/highlight detail. So I’m hoping it’ll be fine.
Tried to buy bellini yesterday but the postage is nearly the same price as the developer. I live in belfast and i only have wex photo. Bummer but I’ll just have to get over it and just buy it
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Fleabay has a small (250 ml) bottle at £15.50 inc a syringe with delivery £5.50. Should still last for ages at 6.2 ml per film.
 
trypdal said:
Have you considered the new Fotoimpex HC-110 clone? It is exactly the same as the newest (liquid, not sirupy) Kodak HC110 formula

Fotoimpex HC110

From the description on the website:
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This is rumoured to be actual bankrupt stock from Sino Promise (or whatever) that was making stuff for Kodak, so might be good...

Uh oh, from their website:

"Unfortunately for our beloved british customers BREXIT will increase the shipping tarifs. The UK is now a non-EU country which means we cannot avoid a dreadfull customs procedure. The following changes appply for our UK customers starting January 1st 2021:

+ Only slightly increased shipping costs (hurray!)
+ Customs procedure can be declared at the post office (thumbs up!)

- The minimum order size has to be >170 EUR because there is a tax declaration threshold imposed by the british government which is prohibitively bureaucratic.
You cannot check out with lower values.
- Slightly longer shipping times
- Slightly lower service in transport (UK Postal Service after Dover instead of DHL)
- Dangerous goods can no longer be shipped

We are working on an option for offering the old pre-Brexit level of service (DHL Europack) which has been running extremely well in the past decade.
However this now calls for a full customs declaration so there will 24 EUR´s of added paper completion costs to each parcel because of this.
Our solution above does not have these extra costs because you can declare at the post office."

Still looked like they were going to allow me to check out though...
 
I see that First Call Photo have a 500 ml for £18, they charge £8 for delivery; Nik & Trik for £20 or so inc syringe, not sure their delivery. Maybe others...
 
Bought it from Nik&trik. Expensive postage but it is what it is.
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By the way, i emailed Ilford technical support yesterday asking them about development times when using Ilford Perceptol.
I received a detailed answer explaining why they advise against it for kentmere 400 and they suggested i use all the other developers available by Ilford. In the end she was kind enough to suggest a development time if i still decided to go ahead with that developer -film combo.
Was surprised to get such a lengthy detailed reply:)
 
Marino said:
the question was about developers…yes..And then something else…and then i forget.. and now I’m sat thinking i really should go out and take more pictures :wacky:
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I’ll buy Bellini HC110, it doesn’t look like i can find the original Kodak. But apparently it’s the same as the original. On the plus side development times are in the massive dev app which is extremely handy. It also has times for pushing kentmere 400. Will be handy as i shot a full roll yesterday and used iso800 in the settings instead.
I’ve bought Bellini chemicals for the printing process in the past and had no complaints.


I started thinking about self like after reading the above, i didn’t want to take any chances with expired developer.
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I mentioned before Ilford ID11 is an extremely capable and well worth trying out. It has a shelf life of well over a year after mixing I claim this because of my experience with it.
A 1 litre powder kit will process 13full length 35mm films when use in a JOBO rotary processor at a 1-1 dilution and the processing times are then reduced by 15%. Because the most photography I do is colour that means 1 litre will last a long time. About 3 months ago I finished off my previous litre which was date labled over 2 years ago. There was no precipitation in the last dregs, nor had the developer deteriorated (discoloured) in a part filled bottle I always store my pre mixed developers in 1/2 litre brown glass bottles with neoprene air tight screw stoppers.

Because I have always been a skinflint when spending I always buy my paper developer in a 5 litre drum. it is about 50% cheaper that way. Again I use Ilford this time the developer is Multigrade. When I open the drum I always decant it into 10 x 5 litre brown glass bottles and that extends the life by years! I don't know how may but my current batch is about half used. When I open one of the bottles to use it, I decant the contents into 5 x 100cc bottles. One bottle is enough for an evenings work so long as I am not printing a number of 12x16 sheets.

You can buy these dark brown screw-top bottles on line from places that sell to chemists etc. They cost pence and buying a full set for the 5 L paper developer you still wont break the bank and they are always reusable.

So yes Ilford are being conservative with their expiry times perhaps this is because not everyone can be bothered (or may not realise it can be done) to buy extra glass bottles and let the developer degrade in part filled plastic bottles. If you have not used multigrade developer when new the liquid is the same shade as Jersey Cream and in use turns yellow when diluted after a few hours. It may last overnight but it's not worth the risk.

I use the same principal when mixing RA4 developer (currently I use Champion) who are a large chemical company and available from AG Photographic in Birmingham.
 
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Well Santa brought me a present early:p
x2 Bellini Euro HC (Kodak HC110) arrived today and at the moment I prefer it much more compared to developers I've used in the past (Ilford Microphen & Perceptol, Kodak D76).
It comes in 250ml bottles (that's what i got), although it does not mention anywhere shelf life on the product or their website.
I'll email them as soon as i get a chance, as I'm curious to see what's the best way to store the chemical and how long does it lasts after opening the lid.
Developing times are the same as the original HC100.
About pushing Kentmere 400 to iso 800, I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I'm really happy to know i can push the film to 800 if I need to shoot faster speeds.
The scans seem to be great. I haven't noticed much difference compared to box speed (iso400). Grain and contrast seems to be normal.
The big test will be the darkroom as the negative seems to be less dense than usual.
I'll update this thread as soon as i get a chance to print.
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Itll be fine on the shelf for at least 2 years, if youve not used it by then, thats the best thing about it open and use whenever you want - no special measures required
 
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