Which black and white developer ?

Thmaga

Thmaga

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Although this has been asked many times before, I'm still quite confused as to what to go for, I'm looking for something general purpose, I'll be shooting HP5 FP4 and maybe some Pan F occasionally.

I'm aware there's powder and liquid ones, I want something that's not going to be too much of a fuss to use.

Any recommendations?
 
For a good general purpose developer you are looking at Kodak D76 or T-Max or Ilford's ID-11 or Ilfosol 3 I suppose.


I personally use Kodak T-Max developer. (I found Ilfosol 3 went 'off' fairly quickly) This is a liquid concentrate that generally used 1 + 4 (one part dev, 4 parts water).

I don't use powder developers any more (D76 or ID-11 for instance) because it means mixing up more than I will use in a certain time period and thus having to waste some.

When my 1 litre bottle of T-Max gets below half full I decant it into an airtight 500ml bottle - This way it will probably last me around 9-12 months (my current bottle has already lasted 8 months and is still ok)

It depends on haw much you are going to use really.
 
Well I'm not going to be using it that often, I'll be doing allot at college, but I'd like to be able to do some at home too.
 
RO9/Rodinal goes well with FP4+Pan F and is decent enough with HP5 + a 500ml bottle will last you an age. I currently use Champion Promicrol, cheap and vesatile.
 
+1 for Rodinal. I have a 1-litre bottle that I bought for about a tenner and at a roll or two a week it will probably see a decade come and go before it's finished.
 
Best place to buy Rodinal?, thanks for the suggestions!
 
You might find it cheaper elsewhere, but I get mine from Silverprint (at the bottom of that page).

Try the little 125ml first and see if you like it. The 1 litre is called Studional, but it's the same stuff.
 
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is there a pdf somewhere of the dev times with various films ?

Now stop and fix, any recommendations there?
 
Hehe, I'm glued to my mac at the moment :)

I should be out there shooting something...
 
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back in the day, ha ha they used to put a little dev chart in with the developer. dont they do that any more? :suspect:
 
Fixer is less critical, and doesn't go off like developer. Get a 5 litre Champion Amfix. Dilute 1+4 for one shot use. Good for over 100 uses (assuming a normal 250cc tank) so that will last for ages and cost about 22p a go.

See here for First-Call Photographic supplies site.
 
Hippie said:
Fixer is less critical, and doesn't go off like developer. Get a 5 litre Champion Amfix. Dilute 1+4 for one shot use. Good for over 100 uses (assuming a normal 250cc tank) so that will last for ages and cost about 22p a go.

See here for First-Call Photographic supplies site.
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Fixer isn't one shot, with a 250cc tank, those 5 litre bottles are good for at least 1000 films!
 
Sam_G said:
Fixer isn't one shot, with a 250cc tank, those 5 litre bottles are good for at least 1000 films!
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That's great news. For B&W, I've always chucked both developer and fixer after use for films, on the theory that you only get one chance at the film. For prints, you can do it again if you make a mistake. I keep print chems until they stop working.

C-41 and E-3 chems stay good for longer, it seems. Dev has to be kept airtight in fridge for best storage.
 
For the fix, just use a simple clip test - with 35mm, when you trim the film leader, keep the bit you snip off, and put it in a small container with a few ML's of the fix. Check how long it takes to clear the film, double this time is the time you need to fix the film for. If the film hasn't cleared in 5 minutes, chuck the fix away and mix some more. Simples. :meerkat:


Oh - and ID-11 at stock solution keeps for around 3 months in an airtight bottle - just put a plastic bag into the neck of the bottle and inflate it... keeps the air from the liquid surface. Rodinal - i've had for over a year without any deterioration - it goes a bit brown, but still works fine. Now Developer at working solution strength - make it up straight before use and use as 1 shot would be my recomendation to home processors. The Tetenal C41 kit is pretty good - my first 1 Litre kit did 20 films (well - I "retired" it from C41 after 15 and used it to cross-process another 5 E6 films) before being all nasty and gunky! - probably at a rate of 1 film a week on average. Not sure about E-3 chemistry - wasn't really doing much in the early seventies :shrug:
 
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You must mean 'E-6' not E-3 as no films have been made using that process for about 35 years and it requires re-exposure of the film using a strobe light. Plus the chemicals have not been made for years either.
 
Sam_G said:
I currently use Champion Promicrol, cheap and vesatile.
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That's what I use although I'm not really into B/W...just for testing cameras and lenses, I use the tap water as it comes and don't bother using a thermometer and the results are quite good.
 
s162216 said:
You must mean 'E-6' not E-3 as no films have been made using that process for about 35 years and it requires re-exposure of the film using a strobe light. Plus the chemicals have not been made for years either.
Click to expand...

Of course, silly me.
 
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