Developer Temperature

Quick question..are there any paper or film developers for B&W that do not have to be at the normal 68 degrees for development ?

I know I can increase the time the film/paper is in the solution, but is there a developer made that temperature is not part of the development, other than time?



My basement is around 62F, and I have to warm the solutions up to 68 or higher all of the time, or run a space heater a couple hours before I head to the basement darkroom.

Diafine is a two part developer that work well in a wide range of temps. In fact the time is not very important. You can soak it for no less than 3 mins for each solution and for nearly 10 minutes with no ill effect. But there are draw backs.

this may be fuzzy logic, since the reduced temperature means reduced energy of the chemistry, a highly active developer should not be a problem at a lower temperature, just some longer developing time. So, say a metol based developer like D23 should be fine at 62F. I can't speak for the fix at that temperature.

One problem is that you have to rate your film by a 1 to 2 stop push. An example would be that I have to shoot Tri-X at 1250ASA (some like 1600 better). And that is the only speed I can rate it at when using Diafine. Also it tend to compress the tonal range. This means it does well with very contrast lighting like harsh sun or bright stage lighting. It does pretty good to not let the shadows block up and keep the high lights from blowing out.

On the other side it tends to make the image a bit flat with out good contrast in your lighting. This is very true with skin tones.

Also since temp and time is not very important, you can develop two different films of different speeds at the same time. The other day I developed a roll of Fuji SS (100ASA) and a roll of Tri-X in the same tank all at once. Diafine does not wear out either. You can pour the solution into the tank and then right back into the bottle. It has been known to last for a year of two with use.

I mostly use it for film that I use to test camera for light leaks and such. Just make the process so much quicker and easy for a test roll. You don't even have to agitate other than a few light taps when you first pour it in.

Personally, for the rolls that matter (not test rolls) it is worth the time and effort to warm things up(or cool them down in the summer) so that I can use the preferred developer for the film of choice.

65-75 are fine temps requiring only time changes -far as I know
I think fixer at extremes is a problem as is some developers losing all energy
bucket of 70 degree water sounds like your best friend

after 5-8 minutes your developer will probably drop a couple degrees in a cold basement
slight increase in development time to compensate for drop or maybe dunk the tank into bucket every couple minutes ..basically a water bath
shallow pan water bath might cool same as the developer so you'd have to have it at maybe 72 before going down in basement

running hot water over bottle of cool developer will raise temp to 68-70 in no time ..maybe 15-20 seconds depending
cooling 75 down to 68 seems to take much longer under cold water ..45 seconds?

printing would be even trickier given trays and such. More time-consuming.

My basement is around 53 right now. Edit 43 degrees but 5 outside. I use a one temp food warmer I bought cheaply to try out
Keeps temp at 77 with trays directly on warmer. perfect size for 3 5x7 trays
Inside at 70 it keeps solutions at about 104

so
Put a cloth down or even insulation board/whatever to bring down tray warmth to 70

8x10 and larger trays obviously need a huge warming device ..or multiple


Thermostat might be great if have a low 70 setting but I doubt that ...Who needs a room temperature food keeper electricity waster?

My darkroom can be as cool as 13 degrees rather than the optimum 20, but I don't find it to be a big problem. Ways I work around it:

1. Preheat, using a space heater as you mentioned. It's a small room and if I keep the door closed, I can get it to 20 pretty quickly. Generally by the time I've gotten organized and cleaned up the detritus from the last usage (tanks in the drying rack, prints hanging up to dry, etc.) it's up to temperature.

2. Use concentrated developers. Putting in small amounts of cool developers into large amounts of properly-heated water makes no noticeable change to temperature. For example, with PMK I put 3 mL of stock solutions into a litre of water. If the water is 20 when I start (run hot and cold together to get the right temperature), I probably drop the temperature to 19.99997.

3. If you're using developers that are less concentrated, work around it. For example, let's say you have stock D-76 or XTOL at 16 degrees, and you use it 1:1. Mix it with water at 24 degrees (4 degrees above what you want, because your stock solution is 4 degrees below what you want and you are mixing equal parts) and you get 1:1 solution at 20 degrees. It's slightly trickier to do at higher dilutions, but you can still do it.

The bigger problem is during printing, where only option 1 really works. However, extending development time works if the temperature is reasonable. If the darkroom is, say, 18 degrees, an extended development will serve the same purpose as having 20-degree developer.

See this post:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

I've found a portable 2kW oil filled radiator effective for heating my well insulated darkroom. However, it isn't the most space efficient solution and a standard wall mounted electric panel radiator could well make more efficient use of limited darkroom space.


Tom.

Greg Heath said:

Quick question..are there any paper or film developers for B&W that do not have to be at the normal 68 degrees for development ?

I know I can increase the time the film/paper is in the solution, but is there a developer made that temperature is not part of the development, other than time?



My basement is around 62F, and I have to warm the solutions up to 68 or higher all of the time, or run a space heater a couple hours before I head to the basement darkroom.

Click to expand...

1) If you are always at 62F, then use that temp. You will need to increase development by trial and error, but once the time is determined it should not change if your ambient temp. is always 62F

2) If your ambient temp varies, then you can try to track down a time-temp chart or equation for your film/developer combination. If one does not exist, there are ways to make a table. (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

3) Use some form of temperature control.

4) Try Diafine two bath.