Question regarding the use of developer and fixer

Stewe · 2012-04-07T14:11:43+00:00

Hallo miteinander, ich hätte da mal eine Frage bezüglich der Nutzung von s/w Negativentwicklern und Fixierern. Zum Entwickler: Wenn ich bspw. Rodinal/Adon...

Stewe

Hello everyone, I have a question regarding the use of black-and-white negative developers and fixers. Regarding the developer: If, for example, I prepare Rodinal/Adonal at a dilution of 1+25 and have two 35mm films in my tank, can I simply use the same dilution for both films by filling the tank with the developer accordingly? Regarding the fixer: For Tetenal Superfix in the FOTOIMPEX online shop , the description states the following dilution: 1+9 = 10-litre batch. Capacity: 2m² of photographic paper and 10 films per litre of solution. 1000 ml ? By a 1-litre batch, they mean 100 ml of fixer + 900 ml of water (= 1-litre batch), don’t they? That means I can fix 10 films with this 1-litre solution and 100 films with the solution from the whole bottle (i.e. 10-litre solution), correct? Same as with the developer: if I then have two 35mm films in the tank and fill it accordingly, that logically counts as two films, correct? Thanks in advance and best regards Addendum One more thing regarding the temperature: Is it important/necessary to have all chemicals, including water, at the same temperature during the subsequent washing, or is it sufficient to have just the developer at, say, 20°C, and can the stop bath, fixer and wetting agent simply be prepared with cold tap water? I’ve now read through various texts and watched videos in which either all liquids were brought to 20°C, or only the developer was, whilst the other chemicals and water were not brought up to temperature.

Tandemfahren

Hi Stewe, It looks as though you’ve got it right. However, you should also be aware that there must always be a certain minimum amount of developer (i.e. concentrate or powder) per film. Rodinal can be used in almost homeopathic dilutions, so you may need to use a larger bottle, e.g. 500ml for a 135 film. Hope that helps, Frank Oops, I forgot: whilst it’s true that a consistent temperature for all baths would be ideal, experience teaches us that only the developer is really critical. In the past, some films were apparently better than today’s and would respond to temperature fluctuations with grain that looked like wrinkles (which then looks quite... artistic); I’ve never managed that with modern film, even through rough handling, and certainly not because I didn’t try hard enough! Still, I don’t just use cold water. I always add a splash of warm water and make sure it’s within +/- 2°, which is usually enough. I prefer the washing water to be on the warm side.

TiMo

Hi Stewe. This is how I go about developing film: The containers with the chemicals are placed in a bowl of warm water. If I need to mix fresh chemicals, I use slightly cooler water and then let it come up to temperature in the bowl with the other chemicals. When developing paper, I place all the bowls inside larger bowls. Before I pour the chemicals into the trays, I bring the bottles up to roughly the right temperature in a bucket of warm water. I have a thermometer in all the trays, but I only pay close attention to the 20 degrees for the developer. To do this, I have an aquarium heater in the outer water tray. The heating element is set to 23 degrees. In the chemical tray, I then have almost exactly 20 degrees. If the other trays deviate too much from 20 degrees, I adjust the temperature in the outer water bath. However, that is rarely the case. I only work with PE paper. I don’t know if this is more critical with baryta paper. Best regards Tim

MirkoBoeddecker

The reason why the temperature and time must be strictly adhered to during development is that a film can be underdeveloped, overdeveloped or developed just right. It all comes down to fractions of a minute and tenths of a degree. Development is influenced by the concentration of the solutions, the time, the temperature and the agitation. The same applies to the other process steps, though they are not dependent on half-degrees or quarter-minutes. If a film is over-stopped, you have to leave it in the stop bath until the gelatin dissolves; and if the fixing time is too long, the fixer starts to slightly eat away at the highlights. You really have to go to extremes before a major disaster occurs. The tolerances are therefore wide, but the principle remains the same. So if you’re fixing at 14 degrees, you’ll need to extend the fixing time considerably to ensure adequate fixing. The same applies to the rinse. The ‘wrinkle grain’ mentioned above can occur if the difference between two baths is too great. This is certainly an issue with ADOX CHS films, but more so if the developing temperature was above 20 degrees (which we generally do not recommend). Have fun in the darkroom! Mirko

AchimBauer

Hello everyone, Up until now, I’ve only ever paid attention to the exact temperature of the film developer, and I’ve always used the same thermometer, as there can certainly be differences from one thermometer to another. I’ve placed everything else in a warm room in good time to bring it up to around 20 °C room temperature. After all, I didn’t have all that many tools at my disposal. When developing, I started with the solution at the correct temperature and let it cool down slowly. After all, I didn’t have anything more than a 5-litre kettle at my disposal. I only had Runzelkorn once on Agfapan 100. But there’s another post here about running hot water. That said, I’ll stick with this method in future: placing a must barrel in the darkroom and letting it warm up for a few days. Regards, Achim