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alternate developers for prints: specifically...

David Lyga

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Has anyone tried, and succeeded, with using either Rodinal or HC-110 for printing? I believe that these developers have the power to deliver true blacks and would be interested in knowing which dilutions you used. - David Lyga
 
I've tried HC-110 a couple times just out of curiosity, and it certainly works.
The prints had a different "look" than dektol or LPD, but I'm not an experienced enough printer to tell you what it was or why they looked different.
My very subjective impression was that they look "better" in some way... but it would be expensive to use it all the time.

According to:
http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/
dilution "A" is recommended and
it has been used to increase highlight detail ( lower the minimum developable exposure on the paper ) and to extend the working life of other print developers.
 
Rodinal, Kodak Kodinol, and Ilford Certibal were all sold as universal print and film developers. You just need to use much more concentrated than for films. Somewhere around the 1+10 mark or stronger maybe 1+ 7.

Ian
 
Looking at this from the perspective of economy this is a bad idea. I have better things to do than throw money down the drain.

While print developers like Dektol can be used as film developers when used in higher dilutions things would not work well the other way around. I would expect contrast and D-max to suffer.
 
michael_r said:
I would think the main issue with using film developers to develop prints would be fog (since film developers are formulated to allow for some fog). This of course would depend on the developer. Some might work better than others.
Click to expand...
Actually, it is the other way around (sort of).
Print developers are considerably more active than film developers. If you use them with film, you generally have to dilute them a lot more for film, because if they are used at print strength, they cause film to fog.
Print materials are far less sensitive to light than film is. They also require more development energy than film does.
If you try to use a film developer for prints, you generally have to use it at a much more concentrated dilution, which tends to make it quite expensive to use.
 
During WWII there were articles here in the UK on using "used" one shot film developers for developing prints. This generally involved adding alkali usually Sodium carbonate and sometimes a small amount of developing agent. This was a time when materials were in short supply as most production films, papers, chemistry etc, went to the military so it was necessity rather than being ideal.

Ian
 
David Lyga said:
Has anyone tried, and succeeded, with using either Rodinal or HC-110 for printing? I believe that these developers have the power to deliver true blacks and would be interested in knowing which dilutions you used. - David Lyga
Click to expand...

It seams so to me - you have purchased some great amounds of both developers to cheapest pricing.
Am I right or am I right David ?..!
And now you decide how to use it - why not to papers ?....
But serious - why don't use some of tons from hombrew paper developer recipes?
with regards
PS : To me there is much more suspense
from charakteristics of old developer types per DIY. than possibilitys also given
with film developer to paper.
OR does it go to a long live as paper developer (Rodinal) ?
 

Oh,trendland, I certainly DO make my own 'homebrews' but wanted to get some feedback on the capacity and ability to obtain rich blacks with HC-110 and Rodinal. Certainly, using these film developers on a consistent basis would be too expensive for David Lyga to ponder doing, but the comments really are interesting. - David Lyga
 

Well - I am glad to hear about this from you. So the world I know is still ok again....
But seriously Rodinal is easily from formulation.So we can regard Rodinal as homebrew - HC 110 is the same (simple formula)
Bon chance in advance ....hmm real blacks on paper...?
I just remember the beginning in darkroom without a good darkroom light.
SOME OF MY VERY FIRST CONTACT PRINTS HAD ALSO REAL BLACKS TO 100%......

with special greetings to you David
 
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