Amidol for enlarging?

Donald Miller

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Has anyone here used Amidol in developing enlarged prints? If so, what differences did you observe over Dektol or conventional formulations?

Did you use the MAS formula for enlarging or the Azo formula?

Thanks
 

David A. Goldfarb

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I often use Smith's amidol formula for enlarging. My usual process for a mixed session of enlargements and contact prints (which is often the case) is to mix up a tray of the Azo formula, print the Azo prints, then add the requisite amount of KBr and benzotriazole to convert it to the enlarging formula.

For some papers it doesn't do much (like Ilford MGIV FB and RC)--maybe a little bit more density in the blacks, but that might be achievable in Dektol with a longer development time. But, if I have a tray mixed up for Azo and I have some APUG postcards or some such to run at the end of the session, there's no reason not to get a little more use out of the amidol.

For Cachet/Maco Expo, which is now being sold as J&C Exposition graded and Efke Emaks, it's really nice--significantly richer blacks and the added advantage of water bath processing for intermediate contrast grades.

Steve Anchell was also an advocate of Expo and amidol, but I'm not sure what formula he was using. I think the principle is that the older style soft emulsion papers are said to respond more vividly to amidol and other chemical manipulations like warm and cold tone developers, auto-toning developers, and toning in general.
 

Photo Engineer

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Smith's amidol formula is superb any way you cut it.

I've even tried it with my Azo type emulsion formula and it develops like a shot. Other than developing more rapidly though, it matches the Azo paper prints pretty much with my emulsion.

I do find it works well with other papers, but the MGIV for example, contains a developing agent which IMHO 'normalizes out' many of the amidol effects.

PE
 

Jeremy

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Have you tried out that pyrocat hd plus paper developer, Don, heard good things about it. The inventor is a real nice guy, to boot
 
OP
OP

Donald Miller

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Jeremy Moore said:
Have you tried out that pyrocat hd plus paper developer, Don, heard good things about it. The inventor is a real nice guy, to boot
Click to expand...

Jeremy...

Yeah I heard that rumor too...but I have over a pound of Amidol that is just burning a hole in my shelf...LOL
 

Earl Dunbar

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Back in the mid-80s my standard was Amidol and Zone VI Brilliant, sometimes I used Ilfobrom fibre graded. I preferred the Brilliant, gave rich blacks, good tonal separation, no fogging with high dilution and extended development time. Dektol wasn't as good, IMO. I used Weston's Amidol from Photographers' Formulary.

Earl
 

fhovie

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I have read - and it is my experience so far - that the benefits of Amidol are most greatly noticed with AZO and that it is a supurb developer for any other paper as well - but not noticably better than many other less expensive and less toxic developers for enlarging papers. I know that if I need to do a water bath on a print with run-away contrast - Amidol will do a better job than most other developers for this kind of use. Other than that - I save it for the AZO.
 

Ole

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I have used Moersch's two-bath developer - soft Amidol/hard Pyrocatechol on a few particularly difficult negatives. It works - it's like a split grade printing for graded papers, only better.
 

df cardwell

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Donald

There is a lot that can be gained by using Amidol, but I think it's to be found in working differently than you may with Dektol. I think what we take to be 'correct procedure' is tailored very closely to a metol/hydroquinone developer. You may find that Amidol will let you print a longer scale negative that may be, conventionally, better suited for platinum than for 'california school b&w'. In that respect it may be more like printing with Selectol Soft to gain the highlights, but Amidol will give you a stronger black.

Many years ago, some friends used Amidol and I was inspired by their work. I had just begun working with glycin, and we found very similar results were possible. I've stayed with glycin, they stayed with Amidol. I can't think of a better reason than to start using up that wonderful stuff on your shelf.

It will be a cold tone developer: advice from the '30s is to use it best with a bromide paper. It works very quickly. Have fun, and let us know how it works.

.
 

David A. Goldfarb

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Over on the Azo forum Sandy King ran some step tablets a while back that showed that amidol and glycin could produce almost identical results for normal development, but that amidol worked much better than glycin for water bath processing.
 

df cardwell

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David A. Goldfarb said:
Over on the Azo forum Sandy King ran some step tablets a while back that showed that amidol and glycin could produce almost identical results for normal development, but that amidol worked much better than glycin for water bath processing.
Click to expand...


Absolutely. Amidol's potency is a real plus. Glycin is very slow. Which is why Glycin has always been the prime agent for standing development, and Amidol for water bath.

Wonderful stuff.

.
 

Mark Layne

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I have a photograph taken on FP4 3x4 containing a house with white stucco walls. It was printed on the old Guilleminot Brilliant and developed in amidol. The blacks are lushious and the local contrast in the stucco walls is amazing.
Oh-and it was taken with a scratchy old Tessar 3.5 (yes 3.5) which had apparently previously been used for cracking nuts.
This makes me suspect that a paper like Emaks would be a good fit with amidol as it closely resembles Dupont Varilour.
Mark
 

Earl Dunbar

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Mark: Emaks sounds intriguing. When I do a search for it on the J&C site, I only come up with a long roll: <http://jandcphoto.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=358>

The item is described as graded, but the descriptions says it's variable contrast.

Have you used the Emaks? If it really is a close cousin to Dupont Varilour (I was never fortunate enough to work with it, but did work with both graded and variable contrast Brilliant), I'd be interested.

Earl

Earl
 

David A. Goldfarb

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Emaks is graded. It is sold as J&C Exposition Graded by J&C. It was formerly sold as Cachet Expo and Maco Expo. Note that J&C's grading system is different from the older system, so the former Expo grade 3 is now labeled J&C Exposition grade 2, etc.
 
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