Arista EDU Ultra 400 developement

ronlamarsh · May 23, 2011

Having developement issues: i.e. am having problems with developement fogging and getting enough contrast. I have used D-23 1:1 which works great for HP5+ but I have used it as long as 19min on EDU Ultra 400 and gotten little increase in contrast but a lot of fog. Tried microphen stock at 8min and 10 min. The 10 min test has decent contrast but B+F is still about .24. I wanted to use it for Alt process such as salt and am wondering what developer I can use to get the needed contrast. BTW I did use it rated at 200asa. Any suggestions?

jp498 · May 23, 2011

I'd stick to something more common like xtol/d76. Should be easy to get the extra contrast with some extra agitation or a few extra degrees of warmth when developing.

bwrules · May 23, 2011

Fog? Could simply be fogged film. How old is it?

ronlamarsh · May 23, 2011

FOG

When I say fog I mean a a very B+F level as opposed to say HP5+. As to developers I wasn't aware that D-23 or Microphen were exotic or uncommon.

bwrules · May 23, 2011

I didn't think Microphen is uncommon, either.

jp498 · May 23, 2011

Forgive me then.. Really... Perhaps I'm sheltered (It is Maine after all) and haven't seen it in use nor ever seen it retailed in 20+ years of traditional photography. B&H doesn't have any d-23, but they do have microphen.

bwrules · May 23, 2011

How old is your film. Is it way past date?

Rick A · May 23, 2011

Arista EDU ultra 400 shouldn't be that old. I do question your choice of developers, but that shouldn't give you heavy fog. I shoot loads of 100, no problems in D-76, Rodinal, or Pyrocat-HD. I even souped some in Cachet 55 Panthermic and it came out very nice indeed. Possibly your developers are old and somewhat deteriorated.

cmacd123 · May 24, 2011

The Foma/Ultra films do have a Very Grey base, somewhat darker than HP5, and much darker then some of the other popular films. Perhaps you were seeing base level rather then fog?

Roger Cole · May 25, 2011

jp498 said:
Forgive me then.. Really... Perhaps I'm sheltered (It is Maine after all) and haven't seen it in use nor ever seen it retailed in 20+ years of traditional photography. B&H doesn't have any d-23, but they do have microphen.

No one I'm aware of except Photographer's Formulary sells D-23. It's a mix-it-yourself but extremely simple, very old, tried and true, and the farthest thing from exotic.

HC-110 is known for being good with films with a lot of base fog, particularly expired ones. I don't yet have any experience with Arista/Foma 400 but I have some in both 120 and 4x5 that I'm waiting to try.

N467RX · May 25, 2011

cmacd123 said:
The Foma/Ultra films do have a Very Grey base, somewhat darker than HP5, and much darker then some of the other popular films. Perhaps you were seeing base level rather then fog?

I noticed that too when I developed it, I don't recall the base being so dark in Fomapan 100, but it was dark in the Arista Edu Plus 200. Enough to make me worry about either my chemicals or dev times, but the scans look fine. I should be developing a 2nd roll of AE+ 200 tomorrow and I'll compare. I noticed similar looking negatives in some Plus-X 125 expired in 1991.

Chris Douglas · May 25, 2011

too short

Consulting the humongous dev chart, ultra 400 isn't even listed, but 100 is. For D23 1:1 they suggest 18.5 minutes. 400 seems to take a lot more time, so I suspect you need to develop longer or use D23 full strength. For what its worth, I expose ultra 400 at 400, develop in D76 1:1 12 minutes @68 deg. using Anchell agitation. That is, one minute continuously, 10 sec per minute for the rest. I'm getting good results with a condenser enlarger. Good luck.

R gould · May 26, 2011

I believe that the EDU ultra 400 is re packed Fomapan 400, which my film of choice, and has been for a long time now, and for development I would suggest either D76 stock 8 minutes or, my personal favorite, Rodinal, in one of it new guises,( either adonal or RO9) 1/50 for 13 minutes, with the D76 agitate for first 30 seconds then for first ten seconds of each minute, with rodinal first minute then 3 or 4 inversions every 3o9 seconds, produces very nice negatives, at least it works for me, also, the speed I get is 320 ISO, for the 400,with eithe of the developers above.
Richard

N467RX · May 27, 2011

Yes it is Fomapan 400

ronlamarsh · May 29, 2011

The real issue

Thanks to all for advise and observations. I originally bought this in 5X7 for doing alt process salt prints etc. and my experience with the edu ultra 200 made me think this would be a suitable product also. I have decided that the grey base is something one has to put up with but I have tried rodinal, D-23(which works outstanding with HP5+) microphen, and ansco 47. None of these except ansco 47 stock for 7min at 400 asa or 5.5 min at 200 asa give a normal contrast, i.e. when using a 21 step scale the steps are approx .15 apart. with the other developers i am lucky to .07. But the killer is no matter how long i develope it in anything i cannot achieve a density past about 1.77 which just won't work for salt printing. With longer developement times the very pronounced shoulder kicks in at about ZVIII and is flat from there. For regualr silver printing this would be fine film but for alt process I cannot achieve the densities needed.....this is what the real problem is I just didn't articulate my true objective very well. Thanks Again

Arista EDU Ultra 400 developement

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