DDX developer above 75 Fahrenheit

Hello, summer is approaching and since i live in los angeles i can't guarantee that i can keep my developing temperature at 75 degrees. Sure i know about ice baths, and i reluctantly got diafine (really disappointed), but i'm much more interested in adjusting developing times for a temperature above 75 degrees.

I'm wondering if any one else does the same, since when i look at the datasheet for ddx i don't see times above 75 degrees. I use a app on my phone that allows adjustable times based on temp and dilution, so i know i can do it reasonably. I'm wondering if people have gotten horrible results doing this.

Also isn't there some rule about developing for a minimum of time ?

I think that Ian Grant has to use temps above 75 degrees F in Turkey. He may post on this but it might help if you say what the top temp is likely to be.

Ralph Lambrecht's table in his book Way Beyond Monochrome goes up to 82F but it would look as if there is a min time below which problems may arise.

So it may also help of you give the time for your film at 68F in DDX and then we can furnish the time at 82F if in fact that is the limit for B&W developers such as DDX

In the U.K. we become crazy after even a day at 82F and start burning witches. If that does lower the temp then we chase Gene Wilder around a mediaeval castle with flaming torches

pentaxuser

In general, you should aim for a developing time of at least 4 minutes.

pentaxuser said:

I think that Ian Grant has to use temps above 75 degrees F in Turkey. He may post on this but it might help if you say what the top temp is likely to be.

Ralph Lambrecht's table in his book Way Beyond Monochrome goes up to 82F but it would look as if there is a min time below which problems may arise.

So it may also help of you give the time for your film at 68F in DDX and then we can furnish the time at 82F if in fact that is the limit for B&W developers such as DDX

In the U.K. we become crazy after even a day at 82F and start burning witches. If that does lower the temp then we chase Gene Wilder around a mediaeval castle with flaming torches

pentaxuser

Click to expand...

Ok a bad day i can get my kitchen down to about 78-80 degrees. I figure if i just do a higher dilution, then i could make sure times stay above the 4 minute mark. I use neopan 400, acros 100, and tri-x regularly. Occasionally the delta films.

looking at the Ilford times for most films at 75F it looks as if it would be possible to keep above 4 mins at 78F. For those films where the times are close to 4 mins there is the option of 1+9, times for which are quoted on the Massive Development Chart.

I have no experience of trying 1+9. In the U.K. as I said we have no problems with high temps. If you have a film that doesn't have a 1+9 time then a search of APUG might give you a 1+9 DDX time for that film

pentaxuser

pentaxuser said:

looking at the Ilford times for most films at 75F it looks as if it would be possible to keep above 4 mins at 78F. For those films where the times are close to 4 mins there is the option of 1+9, times for which are quoted on the Massive Development Chart.

I have no experience of trying 1+9. In the U.K. as I said we have no problems with high temps. If you have a film that doesn't have a 1+9 time then a search of APUG might give you a 1+9 DDX time for that film

pentaxuser

Click to expand...

should i reduce agitation when using temps above 75 but times just above 4 mins?

You don't have to get your kitchen cooled down, just your gradients. I run a sink 1/4 full of ice water from the fridge and pop a couple of ice cube trays worth of ice cubes into it. Set your chemical gradients in that w/ a thermometer stuck in them and it's easy to get it down to 68 or 70 degrees. If I can get them cooled down in Florida, you can do it in L.A. It can be 115 in the shade, it doesn't matter, just cool the chemicals down in a bath.

I understand you know about this, but it's so simple and yields such good results, why not?

As mentioned above I regularly process at 27ºC (80.6ºF) when I'm in Turkey, cooling to a lower temperature isn't practical room temperature is in the high 30's, 27ºC is the ambient water temperature. It's very important to keep the whole process at the same temperature, in practice it's very easy.

I think the dev times at 27ºC will be too short with DDX at 1+4, do a search there's people using DDX at 1+9. I use Pyrocat HD which is staining developer and tans (hardens) the emulsion slightly during development. Usually I use a program Wlab/Dlab on a laptop for timing film processing it has a temperature compensation function to determine dev times at different temperatures and that's worked perfectly for me.,, I need to install it on this laptop and the PC in my darkroom.

Ian

redstarjedi said:

should i reduce agitation when using temps above 75 but times just above 4 mins?

Click to expand...

My understanding is that the time/temp charts are based on "all other things being equal" in terms of the processing so, no, would be my answer based on this

pentaxuser

I'd suggest printing off the Ilford compensation-chart from one of their PDFs and then adding a few more lines by hand. There are no complicated curves to draw after all. If your practical temperature then gives a compensated time below four minutes, indeed consider changing to 1+9.

If all else fails in finding some reliable data from someone who has done the same before, look at the proportional time difference between stock Microphen and 1+1, for a starting point of how much of an "X"-factor you might use to increase the time. They are nowhere near identical developers of course, but it's a functional starting point.