Amidol and water bath with contemporary enlarging papers

Gerald C Koch said:

Amidol is a very reactive chemical and unstable in both solution and powder form. In addition it stains everything it touches. This includes hands, trays, clothing, ... It has been implicated in the neurological condition that Edward Weston suffered in later life. He never used tongs and dipped his hands in Amidol solutions routinely. In addition it is expensive and hard to obtain in any degree of purity for photographic work. It was Kodak's contention that the same results could be obtained with a properly compounded MQ developer.

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Well made amidol is quite stable in powdered form, although not as stable as some developing agents. Well made amidol doesn't stain things until it gets well oxidized. True, amidol does not last long in solution, but developer made with well made amidol will usually last the length of your darkroom session. It may become exhausted somewhat more rapidly (number of sheets per liter), but I haven't had enough experience with it to be sure. Notice I refer to well made amidol - the stuff that is off-white crystals and dissolves well. Not all the amidol we get these days is well made. I had some of the Chinese stuff that was tarry dark brown. It stained everything except the image, didn't last very long, and was generally difficult.

Thanks again, Doremus!

The contamination issue you mention makes sense. I think, then, for my first go at it, I'll try two trays: the first with no hydroquinone and the other with the full published amount. Both at stock dilution, or maybe 1+1 for the softer tray. This seems like a better plan and a more likely success than trying Amidol and hoping a water bath will work with a modern paper. Or at least I'll wait to try it after I get the split Ansco 130 method down.

What graded paper and formulae do you use for your split developing?

J

nworth said:

True, amidol does not last long in solution, but developer made with well made amidol will usually last the length of your darkroom session. It may become exhausted somewhat more rapidly (number of sheets per liter), but I haven't had enough experience with it to be sure.

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In an acidic environment (such as Michael Smith's formula) Artcraft amidol will last overnight and still be quite usable the next morning. The number of sheets you develop in a liter is irrelevant as it will be gone from carryover loss before it's exhausted from use.

The Chinese stuff only lasts about 3 hours even with the addition of citric acid. It seemed to yield slightly more dmax than Artcraft when I first started using it, which is why I got into the habit of using it for all my printing. Lately, however, the blacks don't seem as black. I'm thinking maybe the powder has deteriorated over the last few years. In any case, I'd stick with Artcraft amidol if you're going to try it. And make sure that you fix the prints in plain hypo.