Adox MQ Borax Formula

Hi All,

I'm looking to confirm which is the Adox MQ formula. The first one is one I've gleaned of the various web sites...

Metol...................................2 gr
Sodium Sulphite (anhydrous)....80 gr
Hydroquinone.........................4 gr
Borax....................................4 gr
Potassium Bromide..................0.5 gr
Water to make.......................1.0 liter

Or this one, which was found in the most recent edition of the "The Film Developing Cookbook" (by Anchell and Troop)...

Metol...................................1 gr
Sodium Sulphite (anhydrous)....80 gr
Hydroquinone.........................4 gr
Borax....................................4 gr
Potassium Bromide..................0.5 gr
Water to make.......................1.0 liter

The difference between the two is the the Anchell/Troop version contains only 1 gram of metol instead of two. The fomula is located in a quote of Crawley's commentary regarding MQ developers.

My apologies, I've posted to the wrong forum. It should go into the B&W processing forum. It would appear I need to put my brain in gear. If a moderator could help out and move this to the correct forum, I would definitely appreciate it.

ADOX Borax MQ

Adox Borax MQ

Metol 2 gm

Sodium Sulphite (anhydrous) 80 gm

Hydroquinone 4 gm

Borax 4 gm

Potassium Bromide 0.5 gm

Water to make 1.0 liter

This is similar to D-76 with slightly better sharpness, but development times must be increased by 10 - 20 %.

This developer formula was used for testing the DIN speed of films. It gives full film speed, excellent tonality and improved sharpness compared to D-76

Hi Ian,

I presume then the "The Film Developer's Cookbook" formula is incorrect. What is the source of your formula?

Snapshot, the correct version of Adox Borax MQ is published in various sources, The British Journal of Photography was were I first saw it.

The Film Developers Cookbook includes quite a lot of what Geoffrey Crawley published in the BJP, particularly the FX series of Developers.

The formula is published incorrectly in a paragraph of text on p44 of the Cookbook and when comparing to D76 Crawley notes that it uses 20% less Sulphite saying this will improve sharpness, but reduce physical development. The Metol at 1g is a Typo.

The problem with the Cookbooks is there are errors in a few of the formula, the formula published as a Microphen substitute is in fact a very early Ilford PQ developer, while Ilford themselves publish ID-68 at a Microphen type developer.

Ian

Hi Ian,

Thanks for clearing things up for me.