Aculux - recipe?

mahogcam · Oct 31, 2017

Does anyone have the recipe for original Aculux? I always loved this dev. Failing that, something that is virtually identical - fine grain, gentle highlights, huge tonality.

Thanks

RalphLambrecht · Nov 1, 2017

mahogcam said:
Does anyone have the recipe for original Aculux? I always loved this dev. Failing that, something that is virtually identical - fine grain, gentle highlights, huge tonality.

Thanks

why not use D76?sounds very similar.

BMbikerider · Nov 1, 2017

It is YEARS since I heard mention of this developer, let alone used it. However it is not the same as ID11/D76. It was an accutance developer, giving apparent enhanced sharpness although not in the same league as Rodinal. D76/ID11 is a normal fine grain developer - and has been claimed to be the Industry Standard. No such claims have been made for Aculux

Ian Grant · Nov 1, 2017

BMbikerider said:
It is YEARS since I heard mention of this developer, let alone used it. However it is not the same as ID11/D76. It was an accutance developer, giving apparent enhanced sharpness although not in the same league as Rodinal. D76/ID11 is a normal fine grain developer - and has been claimed to be the Industry Standard. No such claims have been made for Aculux

No Aculux (FX-24) wasn't one of Crawley/Paterson's "Acutance" developers they were Acutol and Acutol S. Aculux was a concentrated liquid developer which was designed to give similar results to D76/ID-11, no formula was ever published.

Ian

BMbikerider · Nov 1, 2017

Ian Grant said:
No Aculux (FX-24) wasn't one of Crawley/Paterson's "Acutance" developers they were Acutol and Acutol S. Aculux was a concentrated liquid developer which was designed to give similar results to D76/ID-11, no formula was ever published.

Ian

This below is a section out of the Paterson website that would suggest otherwise as to the origin!

Darkroom Equipment

For nearly sixty years Paterson have specialised in the manufacture and supply of equipment for the manual processing of silver based photographic film and paper.

Paterson darkroom products are in use all over the world in schools, colleges, and professional and enthusiast’s darkrooms.

The comprehensive range of products includes film developing tanks, measuring graduates, enlarger accessories, film and print washing equipment and 35mm and roll film enlargers.

All of the darkroom plastics are manufactured in Paterson’s own factory in the UK.

The range of darkroom equipment is supplemented by the range of ‘ACU’ black and white chemistry formulated by Geoffrey Crawley which is designed to produce optimum quality from modern black and white film and paper

Ian Grant · Nov 1, 2017

BMbikerider said:
This below is a section out of the Paterson website that would suggest otherwise as to the origin!

I'll re-iterate, Aculux (FX24) wasn't one of Crawley's Acutance developers, the only Crawley Acutance developers sold by Paterson were Acutol and Acutol S (FX15, it's that simple

Crawley devised other developers for Paterson such as Acuspeed (speed enhancing like Microphen), Aculux, (normal fine grain developer) the ACU doesn't stand for Acutance, it just comes from the name of Paterson's first developer which was Acutol (made for them by Ilford), the ACU also gets used for Acustop and Acufix.

Crawley's FX18 would be the best equivalent on terms of his published formulae for Aculux, personally I'd recommend Xtol as a better option.

Ian

R.Gould · Nov 1, 2017

Ian Grant said:
I'll re-iterate, Aculux (FX24) wasn't one of Crawley's Acutance developers, the only Crawley Acutance developers sold by Paterson were Acutol and Acutol S (FX15, it's that simple

Crawley devised other developers for Paterson such as Acuspeed (speed enhancing like Microphen), Aculux, (normal fine grain developer) the ACU doesn't stand for Acutance, it just comes from the name of Paterson's first developer which was Acutol (made for them by Ilford), the ACU also gets used for Acustop and Acufix.

Crawley's FX18 would be the best equivalent on terms of his published formulae for Aculux, personally I'd recommend Xtol as a better option.

Ian

Yes, Ian is completely correct, I have used Aculux, which was the general film developer from Patterson, and the Acutol, never used Acutol S, Aculux was re formulated slightly over the years to suit people who wanted to develop negatives suitable for both wet printing and scanning, IIRC there was Aculux, and Aculux 2, the nearest to it I have found was ID11/D76 possibly Xtol but I have never used it so I wouldn't know, as for acutance developers, I always prefered Rodinal,
Richard

Gerald C Koch · Nov 1, 2017

Ian is correct I have all the Crawley formulas that appeared in the BJ and there is no mention of a FX-24. I would suggest trying Maxim M Muir's High Acutence version of D-76. Also give the acutence version of DK-50 a try. Use the formula below FS.

DK-50a

Distilled water ………………………………………………… 800 ml
Metol ……………………………………………………………………………………… 0.5 g
Sodium sulfite (anhy) …………………………………………… 6.0 g
Hydroquinone …………………………………………………………………… 0.5 g
Kodak Balanced Alkali …………………………………………… 10.0 g
Potassium bromide ……………………………………………………… 0.01 g
Distilled water to make ……………………………………… 1.0 l

Trask · Nov 2, 2017

Gerald C Koch said:
Ian is correct I have all the Crawley formulas that appeared in the BJ and there is no mention of a FX-24. I would suggest trying Maxim M Muir's High Acutence version of D-76. Also give the acutence version of DK-50 a try. Use the formula below FS.

DK-50a

Distilled water ………………………………………………… 800 ml
Metol ……………………………………………………………………………………… 0.5 g
Sodium sulfite (anhy) …………………………………………… 6.0 g
Hydroquinone …………………………………………………………………… 0.5 g
Kodak Balanced Alkali …………………………………………… 10.0 g
Potassium bromide ……………………………………………………… 0.01 g
Distilled water to make ……………………………………… 1.0 l

Gerald - Googling for Maxim M Muir’s HIgh Acutance film developer doesn’t pull up a formula, at least for me. Any chance of providing it here?

BMbikerider · Nov 3, 2017

Ian Grant said:
I'll re-iterate, Aculux (FX24) wasn't one of Crawley's Acutance developers, the only Crawley Acutance developers sold by Paterson were Acutol and Acutol S (FX15, it's that simple

Crawley devised other developers for Paterson such as Acuspeed (speed enhancing like Microphen), Aculux, (normal fine grain developer) the ACU doesn't stand for Acutance, it just comes from the name of Paterson's first developer which was Acutol (made for them by Ilford), the ACU also gets used for Acustop and Acufix.

Crawley's FX18 would be the best equivalent on terms of his published formulae for Aculux, personally I'd recommend Xtol as a better option.

Ian

So you are claiming that the Paterson website statement is a complete lie? I don't thinks so!

Rudeofus · Nov 3, 2017

BMbikerider said:
So you are claiming that the Paterson website statement is a complete lie? I don't thinks so!

AFAICT Ian didn't claim that Aculux was not made by Crawley, he claimed that Aculux was not intended and/or advertised as acutance developer.

Ian Grant · Nov 3, 2017

BMbikerider said:
So you are claiming that the Paterson website statement is a complete lie? I don't thinks so!

There's no lies in the Paterson website statement, there's also nothing mentioning Acutance developers. I stated very clearly that Aculux was never sold as an "Acutance" developer and that the two Crawley Acutance developrs sold by Paterson (and originally made for them by Ilford ) were Acutol and Acutol S.

You'll also note that the Crawley ACU range covers B&W chemistry for films and papers in the statement you quoted. As I pointed out earlier ACU is not an abbreviation that means "Acutance" across the range of chemistry that's not an attribute of Stop-baths and Fixers, or Print developers.

Ian

Ian Grant · Nov 3, 2017

Just for clarity Crawley devised all the original Paterson B&W chemistry, the colour chemistry initially came from Pavelle the their chemist was Dr Curt (Kurt) Jacobson - who wrote "Developing" and also "Enlarging) both of which sold many editions as well as many reprints.

Later after merging with Photo Technology Paterson sold their chemistry and at least one B&W developes that had formerly been made by Johnsons of Hendon (later Photo Technology), notably Unitol but used the name label P-tec Unitol to denote the origin.

Ian

Alan Johnson · Nov 3, 2017

I believe Aculux was often used diluted 1+9 where it gives times often similar to D-76 1+1, and fine grain.
The Aculux concentrate might have been based on use of the very soluble potassium sulfite to give fine grain.
I don't know of any other developer based on concentrated potassium sulfite.

Ian Grant · Nov 3, 2017

Alan Johnson said:
I believe Aculux was often used diluted 1+9 where it gives times often similar to D-76 1+1, and fine grain.
The Aculux concentrate might have been based on use of the very soluble potassium sulfite to give fine grain.
I don't know of any other developer based on concentrated potassium sulfite.

1+9 was the recommended dilution. I used Aculux back in the 1970's but the reality was my FP4 negatives didn't quite come up to the quality of ID-11/D76 in terms of fine grain. Paterson and Crawley claimed it was a solvent type developer but even using Potassium Sulphite with a dilution of 1+9 the sulphite level would be very low. About the maximum level of Potassium Sulphite that's practical is 300g/l that has to be fomed by adding Hydroxide to Potassium Metabisulphite solution, at that level it's more like D76/ID-11 at 1+3.

Back in the early 1980's I had a very interesting discussion over a business lunch with 2 senior Ilford managers and a senior research, chemist who had been in charge of scaling up production and the bulk manufacturing Paterson chemistry, he'd found some of the formulae rather odd.

Ian

Alan Johnson · Nov 3, 2017

If you search for potassium sulfite 45 it is widely available as a solution containing 450 g per liter, but only in industrial quantities so not for homebrew purposes.

Ian Grant · Nov 3, 2017

Alan Johnson said:
If you search for potassium sulfite 45 it is widely available as a solution containing 450 g per liter, but only in industrial quantities so not for homebrew purposes.

It seems that Potassium Sulphite is used at around the 300-350g/l level in concentrated Film Developers, Ilford Ilfosol and Agfa Rodinal being two examples.

I make up concentrated paper developers using Potassium Carbonate (& Hydroxide) but haven't had a need to do the same with Film developers.

Ian

Alan Johnson · Nov 3, 2017

Aculux was said to provide good film speed so it might contain phenidone. A quick unchecked search gives the solubility of hydroquinone as 59g per liter and phenidone as 20g per liter.
So far it appears Aculux could have been a PQ + potassium sulfite concentrate?

Ian Grant · Nov 3, 2017

Alan Johnson said:
Aculux was said to provide good film speed so it might contain phenidone. A quick unchecked search gives the solubility of hydroquinone as 59g per liter and phenidone as 20g per liter.
So far it appears Aculux could have been a PQ + potassium sulfite concentrate?

I should have some early adverts for Aculux, I think it was released about 1976, I'll check in the darkroom later.

Ian

Rudeofus · Nov 3, 2017

Alan Johnson said:
A quick unchecked search gives the solubility of hydroquinone as 59g per liter and phenidone as 20g per liter.

There's a good chance, that HQ is much more soluble in alkaline environment.

Ian Grant · Nov 3, 2017

Its in the Paterson advert in the 1976 BJP Annual (published at the end of 1975), I know I used it that spring/early summer 1976. However there's no details about it.

Ian

Alan Johnson · Nov 3, 2017

I don't think its a practical homebrew if the ingredients are all concentrates of potassium sulfite , hydroquinone and phenidone.
Making it would be an exercise in small scale industrial chemistry, rather hazardous.

Ian Grant · Nov 3, 2017

Alan Johnson said:
I don't think its a practical homebrew if the ingredients are all concentrates of potassium sulfite , hydroquinone and phenidone.
Making it would be an exercise in small scale industrial chemistry, rather hazardous.

I'd have no issue try to make up a developer like that, but then I used to buy chemistry by the metric tonne

However I don't think Aculux was particularly good, I'd far rather use replenished Xtol, and if that wasn't available Adox Borax MQ or even ID-11/D76 (all replenished).

These days there are far better concentrated liquid developers, probably Ilford DDX is the best and it's a far more modern formula compared to Aculux.

Ian

Alan Johnson · Nov 3, 2017

The reason why there is no homebrew solvent developer concentrate appears to be because potassium sulfite is not readily available and sodium sulfite is not sufficiently soluble.
Noting that DDX has a pH of ~8.7, one of these which could possibly be kept as powder appears close:
http://www.lostlabours.co.uk/photography/formulae/developers/devPQ-ID11.htm
I have not found a pH for Aculux.

Photo Engineer · Nov 3, 2017

Potassium Sulfite is quite readily available at rather reasonable price. It comes by the gallon as a premixed solution due to solubility, and it also comes as a solid.

PE

Aculux - recipe?

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