B&W film development

[arnodepachter]

Hello everyone,

I developed already lots of C41 films, but now I put a B&W film inside my A1. I was just wondering, can I use my regular paper-chemistry (black and white as well) to develop my B&W film?
I read in a magazine from the seventies that you can, but that you would have more grain. But still tough, I never tried, maybe someone else did?

Thanks in advance,

Arno

 

[degruyl]

The fixer is the same.

You might want to use a different developer, but you can use paper developer to develop film. Black and white film and paper are exactly the same chemically, after all. The difficulty is that the contrast will be much higher than you expect.

Using dektol as an example, the development times are shown here:
http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php?Film=&Developer=Dektol&mdc=Search

Because the times are so short, I would rather not recommend this. Normally, you would not want to develop film for less than 5-6 minutes because of variations in pouring speed and agitation methods. Why not pick up a small package of film developer? You only need to mix up a liter or less unless this is a regular thing.

 

[Jim Noel]

Film and paper are not exactly the same chemically. If they were the developers would be completely interchangeable.
If you are going to use any paper developer to develop film dilution is the answer.
As an example, Dektol at 1+5 or 1+6 will produce a smooth film curve. 1+2 or 1+3 will exhibit extreme contrast.

 

[degruyl]

the chemical process is exactly the same for the image making chemicals. Everything else is different, of course.