777

[Black Dog]

I've come across various references to this brew and it sounds intriguing-anyone out there had any experience with it?

 

[Dave Miller]

http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Harvey/harvey.html

for a discussion on this developer, and formula.

 

[removed account4]

uptown x uses it pretty often. maybe he'll tell us a little about it

 

[removed account4]

i have been wanting to try this developer too...
the formulary will make a kit from the formula published in the unblinking eye article. you can also buy the developer from a place called bluegrass in kentucky. they will sell you " a case" which is 4 1-gallon packets .. for $46. the formulary's price is about 4x that ...

 

[garryl]

there are several discussions on Photo.net about 777~~

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=002YvS
http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=003QHy

SOMEONE call Kentucky Bluegrass and found out its' developer doesn't contain Glycin- so it can't be the same formula. :confused:

I've tried to contact 2 of the people who use 777, because of this thread,
but neither has E-mailed back as yet.

Bill Pierce, one of the people mentioned in the unblinking eye article, E-mailed me back that he finally gave up and went back to D-76.

I would really like to talk with someone who has done 35mm in 777. Mainly
because all the "photo-chemical experts" say you can't use a PPD/Glycin
based developer with todays emulsions- not with getting excessive speed loss and/or dichroic fog. They also say that todays films are so good, that we no longer need "fine grain developers".
:x

 

[Jorge Oliveira]

Garryl

If you can mix your own and are looking for something unusual (I mean not Microdol or Agfa Atomal/Calbe A49), look at DS-10 in:

http://silvergrain.org/Photo-Tech/film-dev-recommend.html

Jorge O

 

[garryl]

Already know about DS-10 from the Pure_Silver list I belong too. Am waiting to see some photo examples before get curious about it.

 

[Jorge Oliveira]

I use ascorbic acid developer with 35mm, but not DS-10.
My dev is based in Patrick Gainer's propylene glycol 'alchemy', and promises to last a lot.

Ascorbic devs give finer grain and are sharper than HC-110, my only commercial dev in stock, so I cannot compare to others.
In a 24x30 cm print, I have to use a loupe to see grain with PX (or, maybe, I need new glasses...)

All I've read about Xtol was very positive, except for the sudden death syndrome.

Jorge O

 

[Thomassauerwein]

Sudden Death Syndrome? The film or the person using it?

 

[Jorge Oliveira]

Thomas

The person using, of course!


What happens is that all ascorbate devs (Xtol, Paterson FX-50) may die suddenly without any color change to indicate end of life, and all you get after dev is a blank film.
So, the nickname.

Both Patrick Gainer and Ryuji Suzuki are trying new formulations to avoid it.

On the other hand, there are people that have been using Xtol for years without any incident.

Water contamination by iron (rusty pipes, etc) is the most likely culprit.

See Ryuji's site (PhD student in chemistry, link I've posted above) for a short layman explanation.

Jorge O

 

[Thomassauerwein]

What a relief, I've been using XTOL for a long, long time now. I do find that it dies very quickly every run needs new chemestry. Thanks Jorge for relief to my panic.

 

[Black Dog]

777 would probably be best with the likes of Fomapan/EFKE as these are older style emulsions.

 

[garryl]

777 would probably be best with the likes of Fomapan/EFKE as these are older style emulsions.

not really. In the unblinking eye article, they use Tri-X and TMAX films.
But these also seem to be 120 films. Haven't run across any examples of 135mm emulsions.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Fomapan and Efke films are all available in 35mm. Click on "J&C" in the banner above, and then click on "35mm" in the left column.

 

[Aggie]

..

 

[Jim Chinn]

I have used XTOL pretty extensively for the last 3 years and never had a failure. I use distilled water, mix at the top end of the temperature range, decant it into smaller bottles and use it up within a month. If there is any left I just toss it out.

 

[Jorge Oliveira]

Jim

5 liters in a month...
I use it more like in an year!

Jorge O