dilution differences

[VoidoidRamone]

Here's a simple, short question. What is the benefit to using a more dilute developer? I understand that you can have more control... but what else does it give? Also... I've used Rodinal (for example) at 1:25 and 1:50... is there any further benefit in going to a 1:100 dilution. What are the differences in using one or the other? Any help would be great. Thanks a lot everyone. -Grant

 

[Dean Williams]

One of the most practical reasons is to control development with more precision. With some film, dev times with full strength developers are quite short. Doubling or tripling dilutions makes pour in/pour out time less critical and it's easier to fine tune dev times for contrast, etc if you have a longer time to work with. IE a 5% reduction in a dev time of 5 minutes is only 15 sec, the same reduction for a 15 min dev time is 45 sec, much easier to control, percentage wise and small mistakes in the time are much less critical. Another reason would be film sharpness. For many developers, film sharpness will increase with more dilute solutions, although grain often appears more noticeable. Another is compensation. Some developers become compensators at higher dilutions, helping to lessen highlight blowout of high contrast scenes, while producing somewhat better shadow detail. Those are a few of the reasons. You'll probably get some more.

Dean