Dilution mix - little bit confused

[smleica]

Hi everyone


I'm new to the forums and new to using film for my photography (moved from digital) and was hoping you might have a moment to help some questions I have on developing my film - I have all my developing kit ready to go, but I'm confused over measurements for my chemicals


I'm going to try stand development - my first attempt at developing my own film and my first little experiment, because I would like to see the outcome of stand development with Tri-X 400 (pushed to 800) in Rodinal (this is going to be the film/developer I intend to stick with through my learning curve, and who knows, maybe beyond)


My developing tank capacity is 290 ml and I would like to use a dilution mix of 1 + 100


My questions are:


1. Can I round up the mix to 300 ml to make measurement slightly easier, and only use 290 ml of the mix?


2. If I do this, would the correct mix be 3 + 297 ml?


3. Will my film develop correctly with only 3 ml of Rodinal (assuming a stand time of 1 hour)?


Thanks in advance, I realise I'm asking real beginners stuff but want to make sure I have some confidence in my film development and don't waste a roll of film!

 

[Kirk Keyes]

1 - yes.

2 - yes.

3 - maybe...

For your first roll, I'd suggest learning how to develop using normal techniques, and save stand developing for when you have more experience.

 

[dmb]

Answering in reverse order for reasons that will become obvious ;-

3. Adox information on R09 states 'When using high dilutions and small developing tanks please make sure to apply on each film 35mm or 120 at least 5 ml of concentrated devloper.'

The next two answers depend on the actual rather than mimimum volume requirements of your tank.

If you have something like a Paterson which will take 120 and 35mm then the bottom of the tank says 290ml for 35mm and go on through 127 (mine is an old tank) up to 500ml for 120 film. These are the minimum volumes needed to cover the film. So in a tank like this there is room to use 500ml for a 35mm film. Other smaller tanks may not be able to take much more than the recommended volume and a) not overflow and b) allow enough room for initial agitation.

So if you can use 500ml of solution then

2. Mix would be 5 + 500 ml (for ease of measurement)

1. Put all 505 ml in. The slight extra will not make any difference.

If your tank won't take 500ml then you may need to move to a 1 + 60 dilution ( 5 + 300 ml ) that may take your film a little beyond 800 you might have to experiment. (Edited to correct maths - duh - not had my coffee yet)

 

[Ian Grant]

3 Unlikely

Films need a reasonable amount of developing agent(s), there are figures for what's actually used in research papers but you need excess beacuse otherwise the developer becomes to weak as it exhausts to be feective.

7-10ml is the minimum volume of Rodinal required.

Ian

 

[Gerald C Koch]

For your first roll, I'd suggest learning how to develop using normal techniques, and save stand developing for when you have more experience.

Ditto. Stand development is a specialized technique and never intended as a general purpose development method. For more information about stand devvelopment and how to use it correctly read a book on the zone system

 

[whlogan]

I would hasten to add that all these rules were made to be broken. One can never predict what might happen by just doing what you like. Go ahead and use however much developer you want, but be aware that you may not get optimal results, but might get results that may amaze you... good or bad. Try these off grid tricks on negatives that are non-critical. See what happens. Explore and play some.
Logan

 

[AgX]

@3 the correct mix would be based on 3+300 (not 3+297)

Your error behind this is mixing up 1+100 with a final solution of 1/100

 

[smleica]

Thank you all for responding

I'm definitely going to give it a go and have taken onboard your comments about the mix and about stand development.... I know for me part of the enjoyment of developing my own film is going to come from experimenting so I'm happy to try it