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View attachment 358475
Anniversary Speed Graphic, 150 mm Componon, .EDU Ultra 400, D-23 replenished stock.
I'm getting some Deja-Vu vibes going on here because the quality of this negative takes me back to four years ago when I was playing around with Pyrocat-HD. The scale of tones look visually compressed, soft, like Pyrocat developed film yet without the coloration and with a boatload of detail. I am now very excited to see how these frames print.
It looks as if this is about 50 degrees Centigrade but a couple of degrees either side is fine. Jon Finch who has a good 10 minute video on this developer simply uses the phrase " around about 50C " so the couple of degrees either side is my interpretation of what "around about " might mean. Based on #10 it looks as if a much lower temp of about 32 C will work so may be the "round about" 50C has more leeway than I had assumed
Here's his video if it helps
pentaxuser
These qualities are why this simplest of all developers is still around after about a hundred years. Especially when used diluted, it's highly compensating (not quite as much as Pyrocat, but much more so than most other of its contemporaries), and with extended development and reduced agitation can get back most of the speed it loses compared to the standard D-76 while maintaining or even improving its compensating quality.
Even better, if you make up the replenisher and use it replenished (at stock strength, of course) it can be very cheap to use; the only extra chemical in the replenisher (DK-25R) is sodium metaborate, which can be made in process from laundry borax and lye drain opener (much more cheaply than buying metaborate from a supplier like DigitalTruth). John Finch has another video aimed specifically at how to use D-23 in replenishment. I've used it this way; it produces nice negatives and a liter of D-23 will last about 20+ rolls before you run out of the recommended amount of replenisher and need to discard all but 250 ml of the stock solution and top up with fresh stock and start a fresh batch of replenisher.
View attachment 358475
Anniversary Speed Graphic, 150 mm Componon, .EDU Ultra 400, D-23 replenished stock.
His metol was lighter in tone. The metol I bought was very lightly brown-tinted with maybe one or two small lumps that I had to bash. Nice to know that you don't need to use scales. Very simple.
Getting into Rodinal territory. That wood image is knife-sharp!I concur with all of this. I now only use D-23 (when I do) as a one-shot developer but when I was still reusing it, I just replenished with fresh stock D-23 and never had an issue.
If you want to go really wild, try D-23 1+9 and add 0.5g/l of sodium hydroxide (lye) to it and semistand process with it for an hour - 2min initial agitation, one 10 second agitation at 31min, out at 60min.
You get razor sharp negs ... arguably too sharp - see the first example below ... but really nice for larger formats. Here are scans of prints made from 35mm and 9x12cm negatives respectively:
Getting into Rodinal territory. That wood image is knife-sharp!
Delicate tone results with the flower and then a retro feel with the alley image. Very cool. D23 has that retro feel to it that I like.D-23 is an excellent choice for DIY compounding and an extremely flexible developer especially when considering its usage at higher dilutions with contrasty technical films (cms 20, hr-21, copex, etc).
Using it at 1+1 in 35mm does indeed give that 'soft working' feel. Legendary stuff, that Metol.
N75, 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6
Kentmere 400, D-23 1+1 14'
V800 negative scan
View attachment 358490View attachment 358491
Edit: D-19 is another interesting developer in the Kodak range, albeit a more complex formulation. Pretty much the exact opposite of D-23, D-19 produces extremely high contrast negatives... best suited for reversal processing!
Thanks for the heads up. I got it at B&H.If you were sold "brown tinted" Metol with hard lumps in it, then I suggest you find a better source for chemistry - "brown" Metol is old and partially deteriorated. Go to Artcraft Chemicals instead.
When you dilute D-23 that much, the metol has far less solvent effect. Hence, the sharpness you see, since it's not "chewing away" at the edges of the grain. This tends to really bring up grain, as the first image shows, so I'd avoid this for 35mm (unless you happen to like that look). But for larger formats - in this case 9x12cm - it works just fine.
from all I know the Sodium Sulfite is responsible for the solvent effect at higher concentrations (100g/l).
if we dilute 1+9, then we'd have 10g/l, which pretty makes it a non-solvent formula, thus more sharpness and larger, edgier grain is to be expected.
If the D-23 produced a good negative, then the Metol is obviously still viable. But ideally, you don't want to rely on it for years in that condition.With the metol that I bought being on the old side; maybe it was a good thing that I went with the D76 time of 11 minutes and not the MDC time for 8.
I have used quite a bit of the D23 and D23 two bath. I've always been able to use it right away. One trick is, before putting adding the Metol, put in a pinch of sodium sulfite, then the Metol, then the rest of the sodium sulfite. I usually start with water at 100°F. After starring very well and dissolving everything, I add the remaining cold water to top it up to a liter, That helps bring the temperature down to processing range. That's the only drawback to using it immediately.
I'd be interested in hearing about your two bath discipline - how you mix the baths and the times. Thanks!
When I got to 40- or so 8x10 equivalents processed, I dumped half of the working developer, and refilled with fresh 1:1 stock.
That’s pretty much everything you need to know!
With the metol that I bought being on the old side; maybe it was a good thing that I went with the D76 time of 11 minutes and not the MDC time for 8.
And this is why you never had trouble. You were effectively just reusing the developer within the usual limits and keeping it about halfway through the reuse limits.
Was the film overexposed a little or was this at box speed?
Is this all from that one light which somehow has managed to light the whole room or has the replenished D23 contributed to such an openness, or are there other sources of light ?
Thanks!
What kind of subjects/shooting environments have you found best benefit from this?
I metered at box speed (true speed for Fomapan is widely given as EI 160-200) and placed the shadows on Zone III.
It's been fifteen years since this was exposed, but I recall there being a window out of view, no direct sun through the window but some sky lighting. D-23 is a speed losing developer, so I doubt it's just because of D-23. As I recall, this was soon after I started using reduced agitation (every third minute) and developing with time as if a 2 stop push, which seems to pull up the shadows about 2/3 stop compared to what you'd get from the same developer with normal 30 second or one minute agitation cycles.
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