I never fiddled with the "swizzle stick" but after 30 years of Paterson use, I found out that you are supposed to swizzle the reels for the first 30 seconds, then put the cap on, burp and agitate normally.
I never fiddled with the "swizzle stick" but after 30 years of Paterson use, I found out that you are supposed to swizzle the reels for the first 30 seconds, then put the cap on, burp and agitate normally.My only criticism of the Paterson tanks is the lid and burp. It's too slow while I feel the the clock running. I'm sure it hasn't materially altered any development with the delay in agitation, but it sure feels that way!
Ha! I have done that in the past, but didn't realize I was doing it the officially sanctioned way. Now, I just get the lid on quickly and ignore the delay.I never fiddled with the "swizzle stick" but after 30 years of Paterson use, I found out that you are supposed to swizzle the reels for the first 30 seconds, then put the cap on, burp and agitate normally.
I've seen a lot of people talking about Tetenal on here - don't know what it is.
I keep reading on the posts here that Tetanal was the only firm making photography chemical products. If I have understood that position correctly then it shouldn't be too hard for them to capture the processing chemicals market.A successor firm, founded by former employees now tries, much reduced in size, to gain foot again on the processing chemicals market.
What? As in hard, unyielding and with a steely look?Remind me of my youth.
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Well now I'm more confused than ever. When I buy Ilford processing chemistry, who made it? When I buy Arista or Cinistill kits, who made them? When I buy Adox, who made it? When I buy Kodak, who made it?
Obviously I don't know exactly what Ilford is doing right now, however, it seems that Ilford has managed the Tetenal issue with no problems. As to Adox. Adox has a new, perfectly sized facility for manufacturing, confectioning, darkroom chemistry. It's not clear that Adox is making every product currently, but I suspect this is the goal.Well now I'm more confused than ever. When I buy Ilford processing chemistry, who made it? When I buy Arista or Cinistill kits, who made them? When I buy Adox, who made it? When I buy Kodak, who made it?
I don't see how a leaky lid could cause light leaks. Every steel tank I've ever used had a light trap in the lid. Even if they leaked chemicals, there was never a light leak which could be attributed to the tank....an Arista/Freestyle Photo stainless steel tank with a leak where the lid seals around the tank so chemicals leaked out all over the place and light leaks ruined the film
My only criticism of the Paterson tanks is the lid and burp. It's too slow while I feel the the clock running. I'm sure it hasn't materially altered any development with the delay in agitation, but it sure feels that way!
Well now I'm more confused than ever. When I buy Ilford processing chemistry, who made it? When I buy Arista or Cinistill kits, who made them? When I buy Adox, who made it? When I buy Kodak, who made it?
Look at Unique photo in New Jersey, they sell less than case quantities of Kodak Flexicolor chemistry, it's made by the China based company that just purchased the color paper and chemistry. It's been coming from China for years so no issues. I reuse the bleach and replenish, but only the bleach. Fixer and Developer are super reasonable. Get the C-41RA chemistry, this is what all minilabs use, it's fresh, cheap, and fast. You can run the whole process in under 10 minutes. Don't buy stabilizer, wash the film after fixing then use the Flexicolor Final Rinse, sort of like PhotoFlo only they add biocide to prevent fungus from dining on the gelatin emulsion. Kodak has instructions on their website, forget the Flexicolor SM chemistry, it's nearly obsolete.It became fairly confusing for me especially when Tetenal went into receivership. Most day to day B&W chemicals that I use are Ilford and Photographer's Formulary. I remember reading that Tetenal produced chemistry for Ilford, but as mshchem pointed out Ilford had no real disruption to speak of. Sadly, Kodak remains a mess. If not for their amazing color films, I wouldn't look towards Kodak for anything. Sure they also have great B&W films, but so do others. The Kodak/Kodak Alaris relationship never seemed healthy to me: technical savvy in one place and marketing in another. It seemed like Kodak Alaris never knew what to do with the stills film market and struggled with the chemistry.
Things are still pretty confused for me, but it does seem like there is redundancy in the photographic chemistry production, which is positive. Now if we could just convince makers of C41 kits to produce kits with separate bleach and fix steps, I would be happy (this excludes the unobtanium Fuji hunt product.)
Look at Unique photo in New Jersey, they sell less than case quantities of Kodak Flexicolor chemistry, it's made by the China based company that just purchased the color paper and chemistry. It's been coming from China for years so no issues. I reuse the bleach and replenish, but only the bleach. Fixer and Developer are super reasonable. Get the C-41RA chemistry, this is what all minilabs use, it's fresh, cheap, and fast. You can run the whole process in under 10 minutes. Don't buy stabilizer, wash the film after fixing then use the Flexicolor Final Rinse, sort of like PhotoFlo only they add biocide to prevent fungus from dining on the gelatin emulsion. Kodak has instructions on their website, forget the Flexicolor SM chemistry, it's nearly obsolete.
If you want to make your life simple, until the Kodak Alaris black and white chemistry mess gets straight, buy Ilford fixer, stop bath and one of their film developer formulas.
Even easier, buy a bottle of Adox Rodinal and a small 25-50 mL plastic graduated cylinder. Rodinal has been around when George Eastman was still working at a bank. It is the most foolproof, never ages, dependable easy to use developer ever made. And this is coming from a guy who has license plates that say XTOL (I'm not kidding ) XTOL is wonderful I have a strategic supply. All of Kodak and Ilford chemistry was (is still with Ilford) made in Germany by Tetenal until Tetenal went to a massive re-organization due to financial issues. There's a new Tetenal, who is trying to get back on track, the Tetenal E6 and C41 kits are perfect for small volume users.
The best SS tanks with plastic lids were made by Kindermann, in West Germany. Every other plastic lidded tank is either a Taiwan or Chinese copy, and as such somewhat hit or miss in quality. Kindermann tanks were also sold as Beseler Professional tanks in the 20th century.
Nikor the original, of which everyone else copied started in NYC sometime in the mid to late 30's to cope with the miniature film boom (i.e. 35mm, Leica etc.) Later Nikor moved to West Springfield Massachusetts. This is where most of the stuff came from. It was the absolute best you could buy, a status symbol until Donald Paterson perfected his wonderful auto loading reels. Paterson pretty much took the non professional market away from Nikor, Nikor was bought and eventually went away.
Nikor is classic but they all leak, weep, taping the lid on with waterproof tape helps. But almost any not defective plastic lidded tank won't leak as much as a 50 year old Nikor tank. It won't look cool, or feel as cool as a nice Nikor tank but that's what you get from Cheap imports.
Buy a bottle of Rodinal, some Ilford Rapid fixer, Edwal LFN wetting agent. Maybe buy a Paterson universal tank, holds 1 120 or 2 35mm reels. Quit messing with Kodak Powders for now. Everyone else makes powders Ilford, Foma, Eco-Pro etc. But try to make your life easy Rodinal is 10 mL to make 260mL developer, use once and toss.
Modern film is so incredibly well made, sharp, ultra fine grain any Ilford, Kodak (when it's not brown!), Adox, Freestyle house brands will give you good results. Sirius Glass and I share a love for XTOL, but anything that makes your life easy to get you back in the darkroom. This is why I suggest Rodinal, you can open it and come back 2 years later and it will still be good. This property is what made Kodak HC-110 such a hit with pros, that and, like XTOL, ease of replenishment. Today's HC-110 has changed dramatically in the "feel" of the developer, people are still wary. With all the issues, Kodak's black and white chemistry has a lot of us concerned.Thank you for all of that info! I need to find a chart or something to explain the differences between developers. I keep hearing about certain developers for old emulsions vs others for new emulsions, acutance, and still too new to this to know what any of that actually translates into in terms of noticeable differences between one developer or another. So much to learn!
This makes sense. Chemistry and paper was/is a division, no mention of a separate black and white chemistry division. God forbid Alaris sells the still film business group to China. That would be an end, for me of a lifelong relationship.Arista is Freestyle's brand. They are the distributer for it.
I think that the Kodak Alaris packaging issues for the powdered chemicals have been basically resolved, save for some retail unhappiness about the format, but there is some product from affected batches still in the pipeline.
And I have received information that now leads me to understand that all the Kodak photo chemicals business - both colour and black and white - has now been purchased by Sino Promise Holdings and that all the Kodak Alaris employees and infrastructure that supported that business have also gone with it.
I agree. Should that day come, I would use my kids' college funds to buy ... ahem ... a fair amount of Kodak color film and the freezers to go with them. Shoot until I drop, the cameras fail, or the film runs out.God forbid Alaris sells the still film business group to China. That would be an end, for me of a lifelong relationship.
Modern film is so incredibly well made, sharp, ultra fine grain any Ilford, Kodak (when it's not brown!), Adox, Freestyle house brands will give you good results. Sirius Glass and I share a love for XTOL, but anything that makes your life easy to get you back in the darkroom. This is why I suggest Rodinal, you can open it and come back 2 years later and it will still be good. This property is what made Kodak HC-110 such a hit with pros, that and, like XTOL, ease of replenishment. Today's HC-110 has changed dramatically in the "feel" of the developer, people are still wary. With all the issues, Kodak's black and white chemistry has a lot of us concerned.
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