Amidol film developer

juan · Jan 1, 2023

I was looking in my chemical closet and noticed the huge container of amidol I have. This is the Chinese amidol that stains. It was worth the effort to clear with Azo, but with modern papers, it’s not particularly good. So, I’m thinking of using it for film.
Pat Gainer posted a formula on APUG
10g - vitamin c
.1 g Amidol
100 ml Propylene glycol.

add 10ml plus 2ml TEA to 250ml water.

Has anyone done experiments with this or any other amidol formula for film? What were your results?

relistan · Jan 1, 2023

juan said:
I was looking in my chemical closet and noticed the huge container of amidol I have. This is the Chinese amidol that stains. It was worth the effort to clear with Azo, but with modern papers, it’s not particularly good. So, I’m thinking of using it for film.
Pat Gainer posted a formula on APUG
10g - vitamin c
.1 g Amidol
100 ml Propylene glycol.

add 10ml plus 2ml TEA to 250ml water.

Has anyone done experiments with this or any other amidol formula for film? What were your results?

I don't have experience with it. The Film Development Cookbook says that amidol film developers have tendency to produce streaking on modern films, and that amidol is extremely unstable in solution. So Gainer's glycol solution is probably the best bet. Some ideas about streaking, if you experience it, would be to pre-wet the film (which I don't normally do), or use extreme minimal agitation. With 35mm a sideways swizzle might work better than inversion.

Rudeofus · Jan 1, 2023

If you look at the formula: for a roll of 135 formal film you need 0.01g Amidol. Unless you process thousands of rolls per year, that Amidol stash of yours won't become smaller.

BTW Ashley <3 made some recent efforts with "dirty" Amidol public here.

juan · Jan 1, 2023

Thanks for the links. Interesting info. I guess the best thing to do is mix some and see what happens.

Amidol film developer

juan

relistan

Rudeofus

juan

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