Crawley FX2 Dilution Question

[Saganich]

Hello,

I'm about to get back to Crawley's FX2 and had a dilution question for the chemists out there. The cookbook calls for mixing a 1 liter working solution from stock using 100ml A & B. If I mixed a 500ml working solution instead using 50ml A & B would the concentration be too little and possibly affect development times? If so, could the stock solution be adjusted to compensate? I guess I don't see the point using a whole liter to develop two reels. Is there a difference mixing up 500 ml directly compared to using 500 ml from a 1 liter working solution?

In my previous experience with FX2 I mixed 500 ml working solution from stock and experienced wonderful results but the development times seemed excessive (30 minutes for triX@200 normal agit) and was wondering if the dilution was a factor.

Thanks!

Chris

 

[Ian Grant]

With these acutance developers the usual recommendation was 600ml of solution per 35mm 36ex or 120 film, Ilord'd Hyfin came in 600ml scahets and I think Kodak HDD did as welll.

500ml may be fine but 300ml is insufficient as you exhaust the developing agent(s) and development slows down only contiuing in the shadow areas where the developer absorbed in the mulsion is less exhausted.

Ian

 

[Saganich]

Right, so 500ml for 2 rolls 36 exp in one SS tank is definitely not enough solution in this case. Some of my seemingly erratic development data of the past starts to make sense in this context. In some cases development in highlights flattened considerably and in other cases not at all while shadows remained consistent across rolls. I see now this may be due to having one reel versus two reels in a 500 ml SS tank. I didn't mind the extra compensation but at the time it seemed random. Thanks.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

I have the following in my notes. The developer appeared in the British Journal of Photography Annual (1972) p 228. For a single 35 mm roll use 25 ml of A, 25 ml of B and 0.9 ml of C (pinakryptol yellow 1:2000) to make 250 ml of working strength developer. Assuming a single roll SS Nikor tank.

 

[Saganich]

Yea, that's how I was mixing. I suppose I'll test this little issue see if there is any noticeable difference. Have to fire-up the ol MacBeth. She'll be happy.

 

[Ian Grant]

I have the following in my notes. The developer appeared in the British Journal of Photography Annual (1972) p 228. For a single 35 mm roll use 25 ml of A, 25 ml of B and 0.9 ml of C (pinakryptol yellow 1:2000) to make 250 ml of working strength developer. Assuming a single roll SS Nikor tank.

Actually Crawley makes rather a mess of the FX-1 & FX-2 developers from the start back when he first published them in 1960/1, he lists the working formulae in Metric weights & measures then for stock solutions and use refers to Oz, Grains & Minims.

Later he states 50ml A + 50ml B + 3.5ml C to make up 1 litre and no references to tank size. He's also quite pedantic in stating only Crystalline Potassium Carbonate should be used and not Anhydrous.

In later copies of the BJP Annuals (1985 for instance) he's increase the Metol in the working solution from 0.25g to 2.5g. It's unlikely this is a typo because he's also increased it in the stock solutions. It's unlikely Crawley did much work on these developers after his initial research in 1960 published in 6 articles in the BJP 1960/1.

Ian

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Actually Crawley makes rather a mess of the FX-1 & FX-2 developers from the start back when he first published them in 1960/1, he lists the working formulae in Metric weights & measures then for stock solutions and use refers to Oz, Grains & Minims.

Later he states 50ml A + 50ml B + 3.5ml C to make up 1 litre and no references to tank size. He's also quite pedantic in stating only Crystalline Potassium Carbonate should be used and not Anhydrous.

In later copies of the BJP Annuals (1985 for instance) he's increase the Metol in the working solution from 0.25g to 2.5g. It's unlikely this is a typo because he's also increased it in the stock solutions. It's unlikely Crawley did much work on these developers after his initial research in 1960 published in 6 articles in the BJP 1960/1.

Ian

Interesting, I was reminded of some developers published in the BJ by Cyril Peckham. In them he freely mixes grams and grains in the same formula. Very confusing and forces the user to convert one system to the other.

Many years ago I used the Beutler formula almost exclusively with great results. 25 ml A, 25 ml of B to make 250 ml of developer.