Acufine ceomponents ratio

Does anyone know what is the ratio of soduim sulfite to hydroquinone in this developer? I already have the components, and I'm down to my last can of acufine. I'm trying to find a similar developer but the closest calls for caustic soda (which is not indicated on the label of acufine).

You can still purchase Acufine. I buy it off the shelf at B&H.

shipping problems

David A. Goldfarb said:

You can still purchase Acufine. I buy it off the shelf at B&H.

Click to expand...

Its not available here most will not ship to the philippines. In fact the cans i had were atleast 10 years old.

We're pretty fortunate here in North America. We can still walk into any *decent* camera store and purchase D-76, Acufine, Xtol, etc...right off the shelf.


You might look at the receipe for ID-68. It is no Acufine but maybe, pretty close.

BradS said:

You might look at the receipe for ID-68. It is no Acufine but maybe, pretty close.

Click to expand...

Okay I'll have a go at it. Hope my photo index has it.

For what it's worth, some notes I copied from rec.photo.darkroom a couple of years ago. The question was about several propretary speed enhancing developers. I haven't tried either of these, or id-68. I think there are some posts in APUG saying that id-68 is superior to the "Microphen like" developer mentioned below.

<start of quote>

Michael Gudzinowicz:

The exact composition of the developers is proprietary, but you should
be able to acquire MSDS on all of them. Most cans of Acufine
and ACU-1 which I've seen recently, appear to be "old" since that
information isn't included.

Paul Farber suggested the following teaspoon formula for a developer
similar to Acufine in the Oct '84 issue of Photographic:

Substitute Acufine
============================
Farber's Conversion
Formula to grams
Water (125F) 2.5 cups 2.5 cups
Phenidone 1/8 tsp 0.25 g
Sulfite 2 tbs + 1 tsp 53.2 g
Hydroquinone 1 1/2 tsp 4.5 g
Borax 1/2 tsp 2.5 g
Sodium Carbonate 3/8 tsp 2.25 g
Potassium Bromide 1/8 tsp 0.8 g
WTM 1 qt 1 qt=0.946Litre

(Conversion table from Henry Horenstein's "Beyond Basic
Photography", 2nd ed, 1977)

# 21 Microphen-like developer
from Steve Anchell's book:
=============================
Water (125F) 750 ml
Sulfite 100 g
Hydroquinone 5 g
Borax 3 g
Boric Acid 3.5 g
Potassium Bromide 1 g
Phenidone 0.2 g
WTM 1 l

The Microphen-like developer resembles buffered D-76 using phenidone
equivalent to approx. 1/10 the weight of metol, and bromide to decrease
phenidone induced fog. I'm not sure how Farber arrived at the Acufine
formulation - in some respects it resembles a PQ version of DK50 1:1
with more sulfite, but not enough to result in a solvent effect
promoting fuzzy filament growth.

I haven't done side-by-side comparisons of Acufine and Microphen, but
you would be hard pressed to find anything which was the equal of
Microphen with respect to speed, fine grain, sharpness and overall tonal
balance.

I had suggested Microphen to a very competent photographer interested in
pushing film, and then he compared it to every published pushing formula
we could find, and concluded that it was superior.

The MSDS sheets you can find on the website of the manufacturer (BKA, Chicago).
http://www.bkaphoto.com/technical_info.asp

Acu-1 (one shot version of Acufine) and Diafine is still populair, even in Europe so we have it in the program.
For the Diafine there is even no European alternative.

Ilford ID-68 Phenidone- Hydroquinone-Borax Fine Grain Developer

Source: The Compact Photo-LAB Index, 1977 Edition, Page 634

Warm Water (125F or 52 C)...........................750ml
Sodium Sulfite (anhydrous)............................85.0 grams
Hydroquinone...............................................5.0 grams
Borax..........................................................7.0 grams
Boric Acid.....................................................2.0 grams
Potassium Bromide..........................................1.0 grams
Phenidone....................................................0.13 grams
Add cold water to make...................................1 liter

Use undiluted; Develop films for 8-10 minutes at 68F (20C)

One MSDS on the web for Acufine shows sodium bicarbonate as well as sodium carbonate. Unfortunately the pH is shown just as ">7" which is not much help.

marcsv said:

... acufine. I'm trying to find a similar developer

Click to expand...

FX-4 is reputed to be very similar. Dan

john_s said:

One MSDS on the web for Acufine shows sodium bicarbonate as well as sodium carbonate. Unfortunately the pH is shown just as ">7" which is not much help.

Click to expand...

And the label on my can indicates sodium sulfite...I can always experiment but without a starting ratio this could take quite some time.

marcsv said:

And the label on my can indicates sodium sulfite...I can always experiment but without a starting ratio this could take quite some time.

Click to expand...

I gave you the recipe for Ilford ID-68 (Microphen - Acufine is similar) which uses 85 grams of sodium sulfite for 5 grams of hydroquinone, thus a ratio of 0.0588

Dan suggested that Acufine is said to be similar to Crawley's FX-4. FX-4 calls out 100 grams of sodium sulfite and 5 grams of hydroquinone, thus a ratio of 0.050



Crawley FX-4 Fine Grain Developer

Warm Water (125F or 50 C)...........................750ml
Sodium Sulfite (anhydrous)............................100.0 grams
Metol ........................................................1.5 grams
Hydroquinone...................................... .........5.0 grams
Borax............................................. .............2.5 grams
Boric Acid.............................................. .......2.0 grams
Potassium Bromide..........................................0.5 grams
Phenidone......................................... ...........0.5 grams
Add cold water to make...................................1 liter

Recipe source: Modern Photographic Processing, Vol 1, by Grant Haist, 1979

Thanks Tom. Just wondering, how much of impact would the omission of phenidone have on the ratio. <off to do some tests>

marcsv said:

Thanks Tom. Just wondering, how much of impact would the omission of phenidone have on the ratio. <off to do some tests>

Click to expand...

Phenidone and Hydroquinone are superadditive, so eliminating the phenidone altogether will slow the rate of development way down and change the character of the developer.

If you want to test this, I advise making up a percentage solution of Phenidone dissolved in Propylene Glycol (it will keep for a very long time that way). Then you can add phenidone to the recipe in small amounts and observe the effects.

Sodium Sulfite, on the other hand will require rather large changes in quantity in order to produce noticeable changes. Increase the Sodium Sulfite and the apparent grain size will tend to decrease. Decrease the amount of Sodium Sulfite - or increase the developer dilution and the image acutance will increase.

john_s said:

Paul Farber suggested the following teaspoon formula for a developer
similar to Acufine in the Oct '84 issue of Photographic:

Substitute Acufine
============================
Farber's Conversion
Formula to grams
Water (125F) 2.5 cups 2.5 cups
Phenidone 1/8 tsp 0.25 g
Sulfite 2 tbs + 1 tsp 53.2 g
Hydroquinone 1 1/2 tsp 4.5 g
Borax 1/2 tsp 2.5 g
Sodium Carbonate 3/8 tsp 2.25 g
Potassium Bromide 1/8 tsp 0.8 g
WTM 1 qt 1 qt=0.946Litre

(Conversion table from Henry Horenstein's "Beyond Basic
Photography", 2nd ed, 1977)

Click to expand...

My Acufine tank crashed, and I've got about 25 4x5" negs to process, and we're about to go out of town in a few days, so it doesn't make sense to run down to B&H and mix up a new 5-litre tank of Acufine, so I tried making two quarts of this formula so I can run the rest of these negs in a couple of batches in a smaller tank, tried one test neg, and the results are great--at least as good as Acufine. If the rest of my negs are a disaster, I'll report back. [Not a disaster, but reporting back: first batch was a little overcooked, because I didn't check for temperature drift after the test sheet, but the second batch looks okay.]

Sometimes I use Acufine for speed, but sometimes just for convenience, and since monobath processing is replacing Acufine for the convenience factor in my darkroom lately, I don't think I'll be maintaining Acufine as a replenished tank developer anymore, and it's great to be able to mix a workalike as I need it.

dancqu said:

FX-4 is reputed to be very similar. Dan

Click to expand...

Geoffrey Crawley's FX-4 Developer

Metol 1.5 grams
Phenidone 0.25 grams
Hydroquinone 5 grams
Sodium Sulphite (anhyd) 100 grams
Borax 2.5 grams
Potassium Bromide 0.5 grams
Water to make 1 liter

Source: The British Journal of Photography Annual - 1970 page 211

I may be repeating myself, but I used to use the following as a good substitute for Acufine:

1/4 tsp Phenidone
1 tbs hydroquinone
100 g sodium sulfite
to make a liter

I used it full strength and reused the liter for at least 8 standard rolls (80 sq. inches each) without any kind of replenishment. HP5+ will take about 6 minutes at 68F. My idea was, from what I had read, that the excess hydroquinone would do the replenishment. The PQ combination is not very sensitive to bromide or change in pH. Once you get over 40:1 Q by weight you won't see any increase in initial activity, but capacity will increase.

gainer said:

I may be repeating myself, but I used to use the
following as a good substitute for Acufine:

1/4 tsp Phenidone
1 tbs hydroquinone
100 g sodium sulfite
to make a liter

Click to expand...

A minimalists dream formula. I don't recall having seen
or tried just that combination as a film developer.

May work well as a paper developer. I have tested Acufine's
one-shot version, ACU-1, adding a little carbonate. Does
paper up just fine. Dan

john_s said:

# 21 Microphen-like developer
from Steve Anchell's book:
=============================
Water (125F) 750 ml
Sulfite 100 g
Hydroquinone 5 g
Borax 3 g
Boric Acid 3.5 g
Potassium Bromide 1 g
Phenidone 0.2 g
WTM 1 l

The Microphen-like developer resembles buffered D-76 using phenidone
equivalent to approx. 1/10 the weight of metol, and bromide to decrease
phenidone induced fog. I'm not sure how Farber arrived at the Acufine
formulation - in some respects it resembles a PQ version of DK50 1:1
with more sulfite, but not enough to result in a solvent effect
promoting fuzzy filament growth.

I haven't done side-by-side comparisons of Acufine and Microphen, but
you would be hard pressed to find anything which was the equal of
Microphen with respect to speed, fine grain, sharpness and overall tonal
balance.

Click to expand...

Dan reopened this old thread yesterday or I'd not have noticed it.

The Formula in the Darkroom Cookbook for a Microphen Type developer is wrong. In fact Tom Hoskinson has already posted ID-68 which is the Microphen Type Developer. ID-68 is interchangeable with Microphen, as is the replenisher.

The formula Anchell lists is as has been mention similar to D76/ID11 and is in fact a PQ variant.

Ilford also published another Fine Grain PQ formula in 1954

Fine grain developer for plates and films

Sodium Sulphite (anhyd) 100 g
Hydroquinone 5 g
Borax 2 g
Boric Acid 1 g
Potassium Bromide 1 g
Phenidone 0.2 g
Water to make 1 litre

Development time: 7-11 minutes at 68° F.
This developer has characteristics approximating to those of Ilford ID-ll, but shows less change in activity during use.

These are Ilford's own comments from the 1954 British Journal Photographic Almanac


Both these formulae are forerunners of Microphen.

Tom Hopkinson has also posted two differing formula for Crawley's FX-4. Crawley's original 1961 articles list the formulae as published in "Modern Photographic Processing, Vol 1, by Grant Haist, 1979", however with no Boric acid.

Crawley FX-4 Fine Grain Developer 1961 version

Sodium Sulphite (anhydrous) 100.0 grams
Metol 1.5 grams
Hydroquinone 5.0 grams
Borax 2.5 grams
Potassium Bromide 0 .5 grams
Phenidone 0.5 grams
Water to make 1 litre

Crawley did vary some of his formulae over the years, and by 1970/72 he published FX-4 with the Phenidone reduced to 0.25 g/litre and the Hydroquinone increased to 6 g/litre

Crawley FX-4 Fine Grain Developer 1972 version

Sodium Sulphite (anhydrous) 100.0 grams
Metol 1.5 grams
Hydroquinone 6.0 grams
Borax 2.5 grams
Potassium Bromide 0 .5 grams
Phenidone 0.25 grams
Water to make 1 litre

These variations make it confusing.

Ian

Not much sulfite

Not much sulfite here:

Substitute Acufine
============================
Farber's Conversion
Formula to grams
Water (125F) 2.5 cups 2.5 cups
Phenidone 1/8 tsp 0.25 g
Sulfite 2 tbs + 1 tsp 53.2 g
Hydroquinone 1 1/2 tsp 4.5 g
Borax 1/2 tsp 2.5 g
Sodium Carbonate 3/8 tsp 2.25 g
Potassium Bromide 1/8 tsp 0.8 g
WTM 1 qt 1 qt=0.946Litre

Just 6% more than DK-50, not noted as a fine graine developer. I would think that any film touting itself as fine grain would need 80-125g of sodium sulfite, or an organic silver halide solvent, or even a salt like a thiocyanate.

As to the MSDS being a source of info, it has been noted here that it isn't much good. They only have to list chemicals that are dangerous or toxic. Hence, you won't find .25g of Phenidone listed, but you will find sodium carbonate. Even when they do, they range is often huge (20-40%) or vague (< 10%) or actual errors of ommission or inaccuracy. While not being able to prove it, I'm sure I've run across such bogus MSDS' in other work I've done.

Here's Diafine formula, which is basically split Microphen:

Solution A
Water 750ml
Sodium Sulfite (anhy) 35g
Hydroquinone 6g
Phenidone .2g
Sodium Bisulfite 6g
Water to make 1 liter

Solution B
Water 750 ml
Sodium Sulfite 65g
Sodium Metaborate 20g
Water to make 1liter

I have found several 'Versions' of FX-4 as well ! However, I never saw a version containing Boric Acid before. I mixed up the one with 0.5 gram Phenidone and 5.0 Grams Hydroquinone as per Crawley's 'Original ' Formula. I tried outdated Kodak Tri-X as FX-4 is supposed to be good for grain structure of Kodak Films.Most negs were a little 'Thin' and scanned with huge Grain.
Contax RTS II Quartz with Fish-Eye on Yashica ML 28mm f2.8, Old Tri-X in FX-4 1+1 for 10 mins @20oc -GRAIN !