Divided D23 capacity

[m. dowdall]

Had lots of fun playing mad scientist in the darkroom today. Tried mixing some Microphen, that didn’t turn out the way it was suppose to. With that disappointment, out came the Darkroom Cookbook and mixed up divided D23 and developed some unimportant sheets. They came out pretty good, a little dense because they had be exposed to be souped in a different developer, but good detail and no blocked highlights. I’d like to use this again but I don’t know what capacity I can expect from a litre of A & B. Does this keep well? The Darkroom cookbook doesn’t have any comment on this.

Thanks

Michael

 

[fhovie]

The A solution lasts a VERY long time - maybe several dozen rolls and maybe more than a year in a full dark glass capped bottle. The B solution wears out with use. After approximately 12 8x10 sheets (rolls) of film, it is pretty well shot - mix new B. I toss it all out at that time and use all fresh. - I don't use it too much. It is most useful for older cameras where the exposure is guess work and the shutter speeds are suspect.

 

[John Bartley]

Had lots of fun playing mad scientist in the darkroom today. ... mixed up divided D23 and developed some unimportant sheets. ..... I don’t know what capacity I can expect from a litre of A & B. Does this keep well? The Darkroom cookbook doesn’t have any comment on this.

Thanks

Michael

Michael,

Please take this with a large grain of salt from a real amateur ... I use D-D23 because it's easy to mix, cheap, and seems to last a loooong time. At about 6 months, I start to worry and mix up fresh batches because .... it's cheap. I mix 2 litres at a time and I store it in clear plastic Rubbermaid juice jugs (yeah, I know - I can feel the cringing happening already ) and put those in a Rubbermaid storage bin (easy to transport and if it spills, it won't matter). I write the dates on the jugs. My jugs currently have two dates on them. This batch was mixed in September (2005) and the previous batch was mixed Feb (2005). Oh yeah - I use "20 Mule Team" borax as a bath B - why? - 'cause I was in the grocery store and saw it and thought - "hey, why not?" At least I'm not as bad as some of our APUG home-brewers - my developer will never be confused with my morning coffee

cheers

EDIT : with respect to fhovie's post - I can say that I have done more than two dozen 8x10 as well as a couple of rolls of 120 and a few 4x5 sheets in bath B without any change in its action, but then I don't have the experience to be a judge of what a really good negative is/should be.

2'nd EDIT :: fhovie - went and had a look at your gallery just now - I like them all, but I really like your Trout Creek and Boise River negs - they look fabulous!!

 

[nworth]

Divided D-23 is a little different than most divided developers because the film actually starts development in the first solution rather than just letting the solution soak into the emulsion. My guess (only a guess) is that the first solution should last about three or four times as long as D-23 usually lasts, based on usage. Kodak used to say the life of standard D-23 was 10 rolls per liter, increasing development time 10 percent for each roll. You should be safe for 25 rolls per liter, probably more. I don't know about the incremental increase in development time, but I doubt if it would be needed in the divided system. Shelf life without use should be the same as D-23. Most people use the second solution as a one-shot. It gets contaminated with carryover from the first bath, and its characteristics change a bit as a result. You should be able to get three or four rolls (tanks) out of it, however, without much change.

 

[m. dowdall]

Thank you every one for your replies. I don't plan on using this as my standard developer; Pyrocat HD is what I use most often. But it's good to have other options around. I take care of the darkroom at the camera club I go to and teach B&W as well. So I would like to have inexpensive alternatives to the developers Rodinol and HC110 that have been donated to the club. The new people to B&W are very keen to try different approaches and I’d like to help as much as possible.

John, we use 2 litre pop bottles and ½ litre U-brew beer bottles to store developers so I’m not cringing.

Jef, why don’t you post your formulae’s in the chemistry section?

Michael

 

[lee]

divided D-23 is a nice developer to control the highlites with from receprocity failure. Ansel talks about it a little in the book the Negative

lee\c

 

[BarrieB]

Interesting question: Only last night I dusted off my two bottles of D-23 Bath A Bath B that had not been used for over 2 years. As neither looked dark or dirty I exposed a short length (24 Exp) of Tri-X at 200. 320, 400 & 800 ISO of a picket fence on the house across the road lit by afternoon light.
At room temp. I gave 5 mins. in A & 4 mins in B and results were perfect. Not only was this old but had been used previously as well. Looking up my notes I usually run 10 -15 rolls thro A then tip out and I replace B. after three rolls or so as it is very cheap.
Hope this helps ... Barrie B. Australia

 

[Jim Noel]

D-23 has been my standby developer for many years. If I have a negative which was made with an unreliable shutter, or in unusual light situations, it is used.

Life of the chemistry is astounding. I normally have to change the "B" aboout every 6 months, and I change the "A" every 10 - 12 months, but I don't know that is absolutely necessary.

At one time we used D-23 single bath with Nitrogen burst agitation in our large format labs at school. This was constantly replenished after each batch of negatives. At the end of each semester I would retrieve the silver laden developer and take it home for use in developing negatives from very flat light situations, such as Death Valley under heavy cloud cover in January. In these situations the HL and Shadows were usually less than 2 stops apart. By using the very heavily used D-23 with stand development for 3 - 8 hours, yes hours, the highlights were replated with silver and beautiful negatives achieved. This technique I learned in my youth when total development was more prevalent than time/temperature.

All of this is to say that I believe if "A" is not contaminated with "B" the life is so long as to not be a concern.The "B", however, does go bad and you will know it when you open the bottle.