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Divided D76 - Which version for full speed?

Harry Lime

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35mm RF
I'm looking for a version of Divided D76 that delivers full film speed.
If possible 400asa or close to that out of Tri-X 400.

There are several versions of DD76 and not being chemically inclined I would appreciate some insight from those who are.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.jackspcs.com/dd76v.htm

FDD-76 is Photographers' Formulary version of Divided D-76.

PD-76 is a Phenidone version of Divided D-76.

VD-76 is Vestal's version of Divided D-76.

FSD-76 is Faber's version of Divided D-76.

AP is an acutance Phenidone divided developer.

XAP, Reichner' Divided Developer, is the highest acutance formulation discovered.
 
I have used Leica`s, Stockler, Thornton`s, basically all D23 divided derivation. They all seemed to work well with film in the 1980`s. They no longer work so well. I tried longer times and more concentrated chemicals in bath A. Even when they worked well, highlight contrast was low

I used XAP for a while with Delta 100 or was it 100 Delta then. It was really nice. This may have been the older emulsion 100 delta.

Phenedone does not get more speed.

I would be tempted to try the first, but I hate getting locked into a proprietary product. I have gone to home brewed plain D76. works well for me.
 
You may want to try Diafine while you are looking at 2 bath developers. Decent results and really good speed. Dirt cheap, last forever, easy. Not my standard but great when traveling and want to soup roll film in bathrooms and such.

RB
 
I've used Barry Thornton's 2-bath for about 2 years and while it's good, I do notice a loss of speed when the light gets dim.

I'm also a longtime Diafine user, but only use it for shooting Tri-X @ 1250/1600.

Regardless does anyone have any information on a variant of DD76 that delivers full speed?
I suspect it's the version that uses Phenidone.
 
Although I am not a fan of two-bath developers, you might want to try This.
 
Ian Grant said:
Or making up ID-68 from scratch.

Ian
Click to expand...
Yes indeed, although some people find weighing Phenidone a P.I.T.A. An alternative is the Rayco high speed fine-grain developer formula which borrows very heavily from the Ilford ID-68 formula.

Sodium sulphite, anhydrous = 100 g
Hydroquinone = 5 g
Borax = 7 g
Phenidone = 0.2 g
Boric acid = 2 g
Potassium bromide = 1 g
WTM 1 litre of stock solution.
 
The Rayco formula is Ilford PQ version of ID-11, of which there are many variants of the buffering, just like D76 25 yeras earlier. This was marketed as Autophen in liquid & powder forms with 2 different replenishers.

Ian
 
I tried out sereral divided developers and found that many, esp. ones based on D23 gave significant development in bath A alone. They seen to work the way a water bath stop does. Rapid development in bath A followed by lesser development in bath B as the developer in the emlusion is used up. Based on this I tried Stock Xtol for about 2/3 of the regular time with inversions at 30 second marks followed by an equal amount of time in a 1+63 Xtol bath with inversions every 2 minutes. (4 min + 4 min) Worked fine with Plus-X but I was shooting in full sun so I was not too conserned about film speed, just contrast control. I'll try and find my test negatives and see if I lost much speed. Tests were done at EI 500, 250, 125, 64 and 32. As I recall ALL of the speeds looked OK. None too dense or thin. Compensation.
 
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Does anyone have a reliable formula for Divided D76? If jack's page is not entirely accurate, I don't want to waste chemicals on a dud.

Thanks
 
"...being more of a photographer than a chemist it's not all clear."

OK, I'm more of a Chemist than a Photographer so lets team up.

First nice to hear you have a copy already. This is a GREAT book and a must to own. It only costs as much as a decent filter so for anyone that does not own a copy; buy one now.

To help other readers out in my copy of the book it is page 85 we are refering to.

As I said I tried several versions divided developers. The only version of DD-76 I have used was the FDD-76 Photographers' Formulary version of Divided D-76. I really had trouble getting 60g of Borax to dissolve. I checked the pH at 60g per liter vs lower amounts and found it to be nearly the same. Since the pH is the same, Vestal's version has works with 2g per liter and the Photographers' Formulary also works with 60g per liter. This is what led me to the 1+63 dilution of Xtol. At this dilution the B bath is basic and I don't have to have to use any other chemicals.

In any case what exactly don't you understand about what is written on page 80 OR 85? Your text may be different then mine so please try and let me know what is the problem.
 
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Harry

You're trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Using Xtol (or D-76) will give you MORE speed, finer grain, greater sharpness, AND NOT lose highlights. All the magic that is ascribed to 2 bath developers is due to the nature of Tri-X, and has NOTHING to do with 2 bath developers. Really.

Xtol 1+1 is easily the best answer.
 
I agree, there is nothing magical about two-bath developers. If they were so wonderful, Ilford and Kodak would sell them.
 
Ok, thanks a lot gents.

I used to be a DD-X man, which is a lot like XTOL (Tri-X 400), but switched to 2-bath for several reasons.

I had difficulty getting consistency when processing large batches. I shoot street and documentary, so it's not unusual for me to rack up a reasonable amount of film per month. Using a 2-bath developer was a fairly idiot proof way for me to develop a dozen or more rolls at a time and get good, predictable and repeatable results.

BT 2-bath is also a heck of a lot cheaper than DD-X, when you're developing several bricks of film a month.

While it may be true that XTOL etc can deliver gentle highlights, I didn't seem to produce those results on a consistent basis.

2-bath also seemed to be a more forgiving when it came to exposure errors. Sometimes there simply is no time to meter properly and I have to wing it. 2-bath saved my tail on several occasions.

BT 2-bath has given me pretty good results so far, but I am noticing a loss of speed in the dead of winter of central Europe. I was hoping that something like Divided D76 would help me squeeze a little more speed out of Tri-X, than I am getting.

I tried XTOL a few years ago, but had some trouble with it, which in hindsight I attribute mostly to operator error.
Maybe I'll give it another try...
 
Ok, thanks a lot gents.

I used to be a DD-X man, which is a lot like XTOL (Tri-X 400), but switched to 2-bath for several reasons.

I had difficulty getting consistency when processing large batches. I shoot street and documentary, so it's not unusual for me to rack up a reasonable amount of film per month. Using a 2-bath developer was a fairly idiot proof way for me to develop a dozen or more rolls at a time and get good, predictable and repeatable results.

BT 2-bath is also a heck of a lot cheaper than DD-X, when you're developing several bricks of film a month.

While it may be true that XTOL etc can deliver gentle highlights, I didn't seem to produce those results on a consistent basis.

2-bath also seemed to be a more forgiving when it came to exposure errors. Sometimes there simply is no time to meter properly and I have to wing it. 2-bath saved my tail on several occasions.

BT 2-bath has given me pretty good results so far, but I am noticing a loss of speed in the dead of winter of central Europe. I was hoping that something like Divided D76 would help me squeeze a little more speed out of Tri-X, than I am getting.

I tried XTOL a few years ago, but had some trouble with it, which in hindsight I attribute mostly to operator error.
Maybe I'll give it another try...
 
Harry Lime said:
...BT 2-bath has given me pretty good results so far, but I am noticing a loss of speed in the dead of winter of central Europe. I was hoping that something like Divided D76 would help me squeeze a little more speed out of Tri-X, than I am getting...
Click to expand...

Hello Harry, could you please elaborate a bit on that?
 
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