Do you pre-wash/pre-soak Fuji Acros ?

[david b]

I was just looking at the pdf for the film and it does not mention it to do it or not.

Developing steps for the film start with the developer.

I normally do it with my Ilford films (which say not to).

So, do you pre-soak or not?

 

[Ian Grant]

No film manufacturer recommends pre-soaking B&W film, there's a similar thread here 2 or 3 days ago. No I never pre-soak, it's totally unnecessary.

Ian

 

[jmcd]

I do find pre-soaking helpful with sheet film, not necessary for roll film.

 

[trotkiller]

I use acros 100 roll film and I always pre-soak but I always pre-soak all my films, its just the way I was taught.

I'm sure if I didn't pre-soak it would make absolutely no difference, but as I said I have always done it that way. You you know what they say about old dogs and new tricks

 

[Dave Swinnard]

With my Acros (roll), I presoak now that I'm using mostly Pyrocat-HD but did not when I used Xtol (1+3) or Perceptol/Microdol (1+3).

I started presoaking films back in the early 80s when I started processing roll films in the Unicolor film drum on a motor base. Using water with a bit of Edwal LFN in it prevented streaking and mottling issues I was having. Now I'm back to the manual tank for smaller formats and presoak only with Pyrocat as per Sandy King's recommendations.

Dave

 

[dpurdy]

I always presoak Acros and I use a lot of it. I have presoaked everything for 20 some years when I came to realize it helped with processing eveness. I used to presoak only 30 seconds until Kodak came out with the Tmax films and recommended a 2 minute presoak. Now I presoak everything for 2 minutes. The only problem I might have ever had with a presoak was with Agfa films but I am not certain of that.

 

[david b]

well I did a 1 minute presoak, agitating the entire minute, and I got what I think are uneven developing marks.

I've used a ton of APX 100 and FP4+ and have always done the presoak with a problem.

So I guess I will try acros without the soak.

 

[colrehogan]

I presoak my Acros sheet films (and all other brands of sheet films) for five minutes prior to development with Pyrocat-HD.

 

[david b]

I should mention that all three films are done in xtol.

I should also mention that I have never had this with Ilford or Agfa roll film before.

 

[Photo Engineer]

I went back to a Kodak "how to" book from the 40s, and in it they show roll film being pre-rinsed! This was when film was a lot softer than today, and so they also show a rinse after development, instead of the stop. This was the time of Eaton's book in which he suggested a rinse for film, but later changed it to a stop.

PE

 

[Baxter Bradford]

There is an awful lot of dye which comes out in the pre-soak. I have no evidence, but it just seems best to get rid of this before putting the Dev in, especially if using a staining dev such as Pyrocat. Having different substances all dissolved in a small amount of liquid seems like asking for problems.

I'm now using a Jobo ATL, so accept that it is no extra effort for the pre-rinse and volume of dev is lower. Six sheets of 5x4 use 300ml vs 1000ml in my previous device, a Combi-plan tank (though I still pre-soaked using that too).

 

[david b]

I shot another roll today in the Fuji GA645w that I just got.

I developed the roll of Acros without a pre-soak and it looks
perfect.

I will shoot a few more tomorrow just to make sure.

 

[lns]

Funny, I always presoak. With Fuji Acros, there is a LOT of blue dye that comes out in the presoak. More than with most films. Also some red tint in the fixer. I just developed two rolls of 120 tonight, by coincidence. -Laura

 

[MattKing]

Pre-soaks are also very handy if, like me, you shoot more than one format and use more than one style of tank, and sometimes forget to check the capacity of a tank before loading film in it.

(Hint: pre-soak with the tank full, then empty the tank and measure how much water was in it).

Matt