alfredl
Hello forum,
I’ll soon have to (or rather, get to!) take a lot of black-and-white photographs and will need to develop the films fairly quickly afterwards. However, I won’t be doing this under laboratory conditions, but out in the field, so to speak. In particular, this means that development won’t always take place at the standard temperature of 20 degrees, but at temperatures ranging from an estimated 16 degrees up to perhaps 28 degrees.
Which film/developer combination would you recommend to ensure reliable development? Achieving extremely fine grain isn’t a major priority; the aim should be for the negatives to have as consistent a look as possible with good contrast reproduction.
As for film stock, I’m thinking of a low-speed (50/100 ASA) and a higher-speed (400/800 ASA) film.
Can anyone recommend a combination that I can then test?
Otherwise, I’d have to carry out a great many tests....
Thanks
A.L.
Gast
Hello Alfred,
FP4 and HP5, both in ID-11 (1:1), or alternatively in A 49, also 1:1.
Absolutely straightforward films and developers – or to put it somewhat provocatively, if you can’t get decent negatives with these, there’s no point even trying with other materials.
However, for anything below 18 degrees and above approx. 23 degrees, I fear that the ‘normal’ extension factors won’t apply. But you want to test it anyway.
Regards,
Axel
hambo
Hello,
As far as films are concerned, I agree with the previous poster; APX 100 and 400 are also good options. However, regarding your temperature range, I can tell you that 16°C is too low, as the developing agents become inactive – in other words, the chemical reaction slows down almost to a standstill. It really should be at least 18°C. If you want to work with standard developers such as ID 11 or Rodinal, you should seek advice from the manufacturers if your temperature is approaching 28°C. In such cases, it may well be necessary to use anti-haze agents or layer hardeners. In the past, Agfa’s Tropexal was available for such cases. However, I think the Tetenal advisory service will be happy to help you with this. Above all, because otherwise the development time will be too short and you’ll only be able to manage it with machine development.
Regards, Jürgen :rolleyes:
PhilippReichmuth
Hi Alfred,
What about Fomapan 100 and 400 in Fomadon LQN? I’ve already developed those at 18, 20 and 30 degrees. Samuli will probably have more to say on that.
Foma itself gives times for 20°C, FOTOIMPEX gives times for 30°C, and on
fotoburzapraha.cz you’ll find a table with guidelines for extension/reduction factors between 16 and 28°C. As a bonus, you get a film and developer combination that’s perfectly matched.
The downside is that the times at 30° become very short, but that’s unlikely to be much different with other combinations.
Philipp
fotohuisrovo
In this case, I will use Diafine from BKA-Chicago, USA. A two-bath developer that works ‘independently’ of temperature between approximately 18°C and 28°C.
Suitable combinations: Many, including robust films such as HP5+ and FP4+ with an ISO of 800 (HP5+) and ISO 250–320 (FP4+) in Diafine, 2×3 for 4 minutes.
But films such as Fomapan 100 and 400 can also be used, as well as Agfa APX100 (E.I. 200).
Diafine is available, for example, as Part A and Part B for 2 x 950 ml, with a shelf life of approximately 1 year, sufficient for 30–40 films.
Best regards,
Robert
SamuliSchielke
I’m flattered that Philipp cites me as an authority. I did, in fact, develop Ilford, Fomapan and Efke films ‘in the field’ for a month under very non-lab-like conditions, and developed both Foma and Ilford HP5 in Fomadon LQN at 30 degrees. Efke can’t cope with that. The negatives do, however, turn out very steep at 30 degrees, and 20 degrees is generally speaking better.
As a rule, you should use films where it doesn’t matter if the development time is a bit too long or too short. In my experience, Efke, Foma or Ilford HP/FP work well. Foma has the most stable emulsion, whilst Ilford and Efke offer a bit more exposure latitude. In my experience, it’s also very practical when developing ‘in the field’ to have single-use chemicals that you don’t have to lug around in large bottles. I used Fomadon because I mainly used Foma films. Diafine (thanks for the tip, Robert) sounds even better, though. The main thing is that you don’t have to lug around large bottles and further complicate the already imprecise process with extension factors.
For Ilford films, there’s a really handy time table in the data sheet for temperature variations, and as long as you’ve got a thermometer and some sort of heat source to heat the water with, you can somehow get the solution up to 18 to 24 degrees.
Have fun!
Samuli
alfredl
Many thanks to everyone.
Those are some very interesting suggestions. I’ll have plenty to try out.
I think I’ll give ILFORD and FOMA a go. I never really got on with AGFA in the past, so I’ve always used PAN F and HP5.
I tried FOMA quite a few times about 10 years ago when I was in the Czech Republic and was quite happy with it.
We’ll see...
Heating it up from 16 to 18 degrees shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
A.L.
alfredl
Thanks, Philp, for the tip about Fotoburza. It really is worth it once you’ve learnt some Czech! I never thought it would pay off again after such a long time. I do have to rely heavily on the dictionary, though.
