Curious about p-aminophenol

john_s · Mar 25, 2006

Are there any other film developer formulas using p-aminophenol other than Rodinal (and its versions such as R09 etc) and now Sandy's pyrocat-P? Also, although recipes for do-it-yourself Rodinal specify the hydrochloride, I read that it becomes the non-hydrochloride part way through the mixing. So can the plain p-aminophenol be used for a Rodinal clone, or is the hydrochloride necessary?

Also, since Rodinal is reported to make a very nice warm tone print developer, are there any formulas for using p-aminophenol to make a warm tone print developer?

Part of my curiosity stems from the comparatively low price of p-aminophenol.

Ian Grant · Mar 25, 2006

J W Shaw (Rodinal) Warmtone developer

www.apug.org/forums/article.php?a=109

dancqu · Mar 25, 2006

john_s said:
Also, since Rodinal is reported to make a very
nice warm tone print developer, are there any
formulas for using p-aminophenol to make a
warm tone print developer?

P-aminophenol as the single agent in a print
developer should produce full scale prints.

To test place 5ml of Rodinal in 250ml of water
and use half that amount for 1 5x7. To the other
half add 1 gram of sodium carbonate and test again.
Allow as much as 5 minutes development.

Many film developers make fine print developers but
need spiking; the carbonate. Let us know. Dan

srs5694 · Mar 25, 2006

I briefly played around with the following formula:

TEA: 100ml
p-aminophenol hydrochloride: 4.5g
ascorbic acid: 9g

This is a variant of PC-TEA using p-aminophenol hydrochloride rather than phenidone; I call it "PAC-TEA." I've used it at 1+50 dilution. It works, but more slowly than other developers; times on the order of 15-20 minutes (with Ilford Pan F+ and Fomapan 400) seem to be required to get acceptable density. I've not done extensive testing of the developer's characteristics, so I can't comment on its important features (acutance, film speed, grain, tonality, etc.)

pnance · Mar 25, 2006

I can't find the link, but here is Patrick Gainer's formula.

34 g p-aminophenol
167 g potassium sulfite OR 133 g sodium sulfite
17 g potassium hydroxide OR 12 g sodium hydroxide
763 ml water

As a side note, Gainer states that if you use the p-aminophenol hydochloride you will need about twice as much of the hydroxide.

Gainer suggests mixing in reverse order, add the water, then sulfite and hydroxide, adding the aminophenol last. No titration needed.

I have mixed this, and it works great. I really like the negatives produced.

Thanks Pat.

gainer · Mar 25, 2006

Now if you make a solution of 80 grams p-aminophenol base in propylene glycol to make a liter, you can do lots of things with it. You can make a solution of 28 grams of sodium hydroxide and 100 or more grams of sodium sulfite in water to make a liter. Equal parts of this solution and the p-aminophenol-glycol solution in water will give the results of Rodinal. !:1:48 will be like 1:50 of Rodinal. You can use part of the p-aminophenol solution in Sandy King's Pyrocat P whether you dissolve the whole formula in glycol or in water. I'm sure you will think of other ways to use it.

gainer · Mar 25, 2006

srs5694 said:
I briefly played around with the following formula:

TEA: 100ml
p-aminophenol hydrochloride: 4.5g
ascorbic acid: 9g

This is a variant of PC-TEA using p-aminophenol hydrochloride rather than phenidone; I call it "PAC-TEA." I've used it at 1+50 dilution. It works, but more slowly than other developers; times on the order of 15-20 minutes (with Ilford Pan F+ and Fomapan 400) seem to be required to get acceptable density. I've not done extensive testing of the developer's characteristics, so I can't comment on its important features (acutance, film speed, grain, tonality, etc.)

I think the p-aminophenol base is a lot more soluble in TEA than the hydrochloride. The hydrochloride along with the ascorbic acid requires a fair amount more of alkali to make it work.

Sajmonus00 · Jun 5, 2022

Hello. My recipe calls for p aminophenol hydrochloride, but i have plain p aminophenol. Should i use less of it, or use less alkali to maintain Ph?
Thanks for help.

Murray Kelly · Jun 5, 2022

Sajmonus00, without seeing your formula I can only suggest looking at #5 again.
Good luck.

Sajmonus00 · Jun 5, 2022

I would like to mix Fomapan R reversal bath, but i only have p aminophenol.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jun 5, 2022

Sajmonus00 said:
Hello. My recipe calls for p aminophenol hydrochloride, but i have plain p aminophenol. Should i use less of it, or use less alkali to maintain Ph?
Thanks for help.

You can substitute every gram of p-aminophenol hydrochloride with 0.75g of p-aminophenol base and 0.25g of Hydrochloric acid. If you don't want to use Hydrochloric acid, you can reduce the alkali used in your formula. If your formula has Sodium hydroxide, then you can use 0.27g less Sodium hydroxide for each gram of p-aminophenol hydrochloride. So if your formula is using, say, 10g of p-aminophenol hydrochloride and 5g of Sodium hydroxide, then use 10 * 0.75 = 7.5g of p-aminophenol base and 5 - 0.27*10 = 2.3g of Sodium hydroxide.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jun 5, 2022

Sajmonus00 said:
I would like to mix Fomapan R reversal bath, but i only have p aminophenol.

If I did the math correctly, you need to use 0.5g of p-aminophenol base and 4.6g of Sodium hydroxide.

Sajmonus00 · Jun 5, 2022

That is what i need. Thank you

Curious about p-aminophenol

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