Developer Life.

Hi all,
It's me again, when I have mixed my developer for printing! How many prints (just say 5x7) will the developer complete before it becomes exhausted, Thanks again for any advice. Paul.

Most paper developers have a spec sheet that indicates what area of paper you can print from say 1L before needing to replenish, Ilford paper certainly does. Just bear in mind that if you tray develop then only do say 4 prints then leave the developer in the tray for a few days then air and time exhaust it. The replenishment only works if you are doing a lot of prints in one session or say within 24 hours. You might be OK or at least get a few more days from it if you decant the developer into a bottle to the brim and re-use that. One fresh print several days later will tell you if your developer is "shot"

pentaxuser

Commercial print developers usually list the useful capacity of their developers. This is usually given as the number of 8x10 (80 in2) sheets per gallon (or metric whatever) of working strength developer.

It depends on the paper and the developer, developers vary. lford RC paper uses less developer than Ilford FB paper. Ilford multigrade developer includes details on capacity and keeping properties download it here https://www.ilfordphoto.com/multigrade-developer-product

It will also depend on the nature of the prints--those which are predominantly dark will use a different amount of the developer than those that are predominantly light. When print development time slows down considerably the developer is exhausted.

I think it would be fairly obvious that any stated capacity is for all papers and for an average tonality print.

If your instructions don't have a number of prints per quart of working solution start at 20 prints per liter. If I plan to print on consecutive days I've covered my print developer by floating an identical tray on the solution in the tray a floating lid, but never use it past the second day. If you are processing FB or prints with a lot of dark tones figure it as half that capacity.

When exposed paper barely starts to develop or does not develop at all, it is probably time to replace the developer.

Which developer?

tripleteer said:

How many prints (just say 5x7) will the developer complete before it becomes exhausted, Thanks again for any advice. Paul.

Click to expand...

Initial test run

LAG said:

Initial test run

Click to expand...

May be I'm now no friend but I use paper
developers without care about ist exhaustion.
I just notice the exhaustion on extented
times.
If this feeling was'nt established from the
first work in darkroom I noticed the exhaustion by looking on white prints
with longest times in use..

So if you want to calculate in an exact way you should do this with simular methods. (I know it goes better)
Mix the smalest ammound of developer you can work with and just couting your
5x7 prints.
At the end you have to multiply your prints in concern of the quantity of developer you have bought.

with regards

trendland said:

May be ...

Click to expand...

I will avoid quoting your enriching coloured post, so as not to make the rest suffer with it unnecesarily. I need to make initial test run with it and use my best developer to try to understand what the hell it means and why you quoted me.

Well - LAG....Sorry to make you angry.
Can you forgive me - perhaps ?
As I said :" I am now no friend " I refered
indeed to some recommandations of
darkrom experts with experience of many decades.
And I can give you the reason to so !
I have got the impressionen that the OP
is not so familiar with darkroom work as
many of us.
And "Paul" asked for "any advise" - so I tryed it, knowingly in the complete oposite direction. Perhaps some others will be reminded of the early days of their
first darkroom too - with the question :
"How many prints will the developer complete before it is exhausted "
In other words - it is depending strongly
to so much parameters that you will find no very exact answer to this question.
The best way is (sometimes allways)
the OP will find it out himself.
Or in a very short form : Wy making simple thinks to much complicate.
My thoughts to the question at first was :
"Has the OP to print 8500 5x7 enlargements within the next 5 weeks -
and therfore he must know immediatetly
whow many canisters of developer he should buy?
I decided he is new in darkroom and the
question was from a general interest.
A question without complete correct possible answer - do you not think so LAG ?

with regards

PS : Obviously I should have said : " May be I am making me no friends now "......
(with following statements)

Perhaps better than : " May be I am now no friend " ??????