Arista Premium Powder Film Developer?

Bormental

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Just found in my stash of chemicals a bag of this developer. I honestly do not remember why I purchased it, perhaps it was someone's recommendation but despite the fact that it's a recent purchase, I just do not remember.

I am out of my usual Xtol and thinking about trying it. There are no development times published for it anywhere, except on freestyle's web site (but Kentmere and Ultrafine films are not listed). MSDS is not published either (they link to paper developer by mistake). They also sell premium liquid, which is a rebranded Clayton F76+. Their dev charts list identical development times for Arista Premium Powder and Arista Premium Liquid. Is this possibly a powder version of F76+?

The description is rather spartan: "Arista Premium Powder Film Developer is a phenidone-based B&W film developer that works exceptionally well in hand processing tanks".

Did anyone use this developer before? Google search returns nothing.
 

MattKing

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What did Freestyle say when you contacted them - Arista is their house brand?
 

Paul Howell

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For what it's work, the MDC list both FP4 in D76 at 8.5 while it list both Kentmyer 100 and Ultrafile at 7, then it list PF4 Aristia Premium at 5.5 so I would develop UF 100 at 5 minents use the same lodgic for UF 100, use TriX and HP5 in D76 as a as a ruler then guessumate what UF 400 should be, it will give you a start from there you can fine tune.
 
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Bormental

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MattKing said:
What did Freestyle say when you contacted them - Arista is their house brand?
Click to expand...
just got a response from them this morning:

"Yes the Arista Premium Powder Film Developer is the same chemical formula as the Arista Premium Liquid Film Developer"

So, it looks like a powder version of Clayton F76+ although their own development times are slightly different between the two, albeit by no more than 30 seconds and just a couple of films.

Searching here on photrio revealed that F76+ is "very similar" to DD-X which is unfortunate because I have a bunch of HP5+ which DD-X wasn't great for.
 
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MattKing

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Bormental said:
Searching here on photrio revealed that F76+ is "very similar" to DD-X which is unfortunate because I have a bunch of HP5+ which DD-X wasn't great for.
Click to expand...
However, the similarities may very well diverge when you go from a powder developer to a liquid one.
Most likely you will need to try it out.
 

Paul Howell

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I used F76+ for many years in the 80s and 90s, the camera shop I shopped had a contract with the local school district which preferred F76 and I got the same price the school paid, just over wholesale, I found it to similar to D76, grain and contrast about the same at 1 to 7, somewhat more acutance when diluted 1:19. F60 was closer to DDX and Tmax. At the time I shooting a lot film, used a bottle every couple of months, but once opened it was only good for a few months.
 
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Bormental

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Quick update: having developed a few rolls of Fomapan in it, I see performance similar to D76 but with a bit more grain. It's kind of like DD-X to my eye, but doesn't have the similar speed boost (admittedly, I have only tried one emulsion in it).
 
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