Divided developers for scanning

[juan]

There are a lot of posts on APUG about divided developers, but this one is specifically for developers to be used for scanned negatives. I find less dense negatives to be better for scanning. Because of finances, I am turning to roll film, and roll film doesn't lend itself well to the BTZS methods I use with 8x10. I have used Farber's divided D-76 and it worked well for scanned negatives. I purposely tested under extreme lighting conditions - standing under a bridge and metering for shadows there, but including the distant area that was in bright sunlight. Both areas came out fine. I have a friend who is using divided D-23, and who also used divided Pyrocat HD. He found the amount of chemicals used with divided Pyrocat to be wastful.

I hope others will post their experiences.
juan

 

[removed account4]

hi juan
i have turned to divided developers lately ...
but not really traditional ones
i use caffenol C ( think low tech, low tox pyro ) and dektol or ansco 130
for roll film i dilute 1:8 or 1:10 and process 1/2 the time in that so either 4 ( or 5 ) minutes
then i get rid of the dektol and add in caffenol c with 1oz of stock dektol ( or a130 ) /L and i
agitate continuously for the remainder of the time ( 4 ( or 5 ) minutes .. if i increase the development the negatives
are nice for contact prints and enlarging, if i decrease the time a little they are thin enough to offer up a nice scan.
works fine with small rolls ( 135 + 120 ) as well as sheets ( i've processed upto 5x7 like this ) .. sheets i just shuffle
and dont' change shuffling between the dektol / ansco and caffenol c.

not sure if this, or what dilutions or times will work for you ...

good luck !
john

 

[lenny]

I spent the last couple of years tuning Xtol to perfection. I recently worked with Pyrocat HD (in Glycol) and PMK and they were both excellent. Those are the top three developers, IMO, and I would imagine you could do anything you wanted with them. If you want a little more shadow detail expose a little more... I don't think dividing is necessary.... altho' it's always an interesting exercise...

I use a drum scanner and I am always after very tightly packed grains. I wouldn't use D-76 in any form any more, its too much of a solvent type developer.