And What of Amidol's Future?

Glycin (the photographic use compound) has no other use that I'm aware of. Glycine (which has medical and other uses) is not the same compound as photographic Glycin. Photographic Glycin is sometimes called Glycine - thus creating confusion.

This is a matter of interest to me which might deserve a new thread only if the answer is more complicated than yes or no. I read many times that amidol gives great blacks without staining, yet it is in the class of tanning-staining developers. Is it possible that it does stain, but the stain is black? Has anyone tried bleaching the silver out of an amidol negative or print to see if there remains a stain? If not, I will try it. I don't use it as a matter of course, but I have some on my shelf.

c6h6o3 said:

I have yet to find a viable substitute for Amidol. Ansco 130 doesn't cut it and neither does BW-65, no matter what the Formulary says.

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How right you are. I tried Ansco 120/130 and a Dektol/Selectol combination (and separately)with Kentmere Bromide and neither gave the same glow as Amidol with water bath. The Amidol is giving a bit too red of a hue to the paper so I'm going to pull back the pot. bromide some but, boy, it sure looks Amidol is still the king of the hill for my needs.

Cheers, James

Tom Hoskinson said:

Glycin (the photographic use compound) has no other use that I'm aware of.

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Glycin is a true chemical orphan.

It can be made from chloroacetic acid and p-aminophenol.

Some suggestions:

As a substitute for Amidol developers you might try the Kalogen developer in the formulary section. Because the developer uses sodium hydroxide as the alkali it provides better blacks than carbonate based developers. Increase the amount of benzotriazole in the formula for colder tones such as Amidol provides. Also try a dilution of 1+11 rather than 1+15.

An old trick for better blacks was to substitute trisodium phosphate 1:1 for the sodium carbonate in print developers. Again this worked by increasing the alkalinity of the developer.

Another old trick is to add 1 gram of potassium thiocyanate to the developer formula.