D-76 for babylon 13 from lomography

[rbotsphotos]

Hello everyone,
I needed assistance figuring out what would be the best development time for Babylon 13 using d-76 developer. I am a college student and did not know 13 iso film exsisted so I wanted to try it out for an assignment and did not realize it is motion picture film. At school I am only provided with d-76 and I am hoping to be able to use that to develop the roll. Does anyone know how long I should dev for or if I should just go ahead and buy the proper chemicals? Thank you!

 

[bernard_L]

Tried to establish a conversion factor by comparing times for developers listed for Babylon and another known film.
The F4 datasheet (the previous version, that lists non-Ilford developers

Table edited because top left cell, empty, had been deleted by the forum software

.	Babylon	FP4
Ilfosol 9 1+3	12'	4'15"
HC-110 dil. B	8'30"	9'

Does not make sense. Babylon times are ~3x larger for Ilfosol and almost equal for HC-110. Possibly an error somewhere.

You need to make you own test. If you are restricted to use D-76 I suggest you use it 1+1 one-shot. Shoot a dozen frames of the same scene. Without rewinding, open your camera in total darkness and cut the film, from its current position, three pieces 4 or 5 inches long. Put them away in a black bag (empty photo paper bag) or in a black film canister. Develop one a a time in D-76 1+1 starting at 10' (20°C). Increase or decrease time for subsequent pieces until the negative looks good (if unsure what "looks good" ask your instructor to assess the negative). You still have 20 or so frames left on the film cartridge that you used.

OR... If that Babylon film is not mandated by your assignment, use FP4 and stay away from boutique films. Lesson learned.

 

[rbotsphotos]

Tried to establish a conversion factor by comparing times for developers listed for Babylon and another known film.
The F4 datasheet (the previous version, that lists non-Ilford developers

Babylon	FP4
Ilfosol 9 1+3	12'	4'15"
HC-110 dil. B	8'30"	9'

Does not make sense. Babylon times are ~3x larger for Ilfosol and almost equal for HC-110. Possibly an error somewhere.

You need to make you own test. If you are restricted to use D-76 I suggest you use it 1+1 one-shot. Shoot a dozen frames of the same scene. Without rewinding, open your camera in total darkness and cut the film, from its current position, three pieces 4 or 5 inches long. Put them away in a black bag (empty photo paper bag) or in a black film canister. Develop one a a time in D-76 1+1 starting at 10' (20°C). Increase or decrease time for subsequent pieces until the negative looks good (if unsure what "looks good" ask your instructor to assess the negative). You still have 20 or so frames left on the film cartridge that you used.

OR... If that Babylon film is not mandated by your assignment, use FP4 and stay away from boutique films. Lesson learned.

Thank you for the response. I will most likely end up testing the film piece by piece to figure out the right dev time. I had never heard of this method but I’m excited to experiment and figure it out myself. Lesson definitely learned and am sticking to FP4, at least for assignments. Again thank you!

 

[bernard_L]

So if you are sold on the idea of testing, here is a suggestion A Paterson tank requires 300cc for one 35mm film. A pity to waste so much for just a few frames. So you might use the following method, that I use for my own health checks (Zone V at 0.7 above B+F).

Cut your test pieces slightly smaller, maybe 2 inches. Get one black plastic canister. Use it as a mini developing tank, film strip with emulsion side facing in. Requires to pour dev, stop, fix in/out in darkness (fix out you can have lights on). Need to prepare the right volume of each chemical in advance, possibly in other film canisters; make sure you know where they are before you turn off the light. 25cc if I remember right. When you are not pouring in/out, put back the lid and you may turn the light on. Wash in an open Paterson tank with a small water flow for 10 min. Or use the Ilford method (google).

Reassign your ISO 13 film for pics with longish exposure times: waterfalls (1/8s is just right IMO), or crowds of commuters, etc.

 

[rbotsphotos]

Hello, I wanted to give you an update. I ended up testing it small strip by small strip adjusting the time as I went along. I used a black plastic canister and Kodak D-76 for the developer. I used 100ml for the measurements of all the chemicals. On the 3rd test strip I got it. The development time I went with was 18 minutes. I actually got some pretty decent negatives given the fact that I had to do some trial and error. Thanks again for your help! It’s much appreciated.