Does anyone know anything at all about the following Efke film developers for which times are listed at Digitaltruth:Efke FR-14; Efke FR-16; Efke FR-3; Efke FR-E24? FR-E24 appears to have a speed enhancing effect.
FR-2 is the same as the Adox MQ Borax
FR-5 Metol 6g; sodium sulfite 95g; borax 5.5g
FR-7 Metol 2g; sodium sulfite 100g; hydroquinone 5g; borax 3g
Sodium sulfite is the anhydrous, all solutions made up to 1 liter.
As far as I remember, but could be wrong. I didn't use EFKE developers for some time now...:
FR16 is liquid universal developer (for film and paper), I have now about one third of bottle of concetrate. Working solution mix is 1:4 for paper and 1:9 for film (or vice versa, don't know till see at manual), and develop 10 roll films or 1,5 m2 of FB paper. I used it only for develping paper and only contact sheets. Cheap (liter of concentrate is about 6 EURO in my town), fast to mix, and can stay good in working solution long. But as I say I used it only for contact sheets.
FR3 is "fine grain" powder developer. I used it with Ilford delta 100 and I was happy with it. It can stay good over 6 months as working solution. I didn't diluted it ever, only used it in working solution mix. Devop 10 roll films in 1 liter of working solution. Some people here say it is D76/ID11 developer, but I don't have any "official" confirmation about that.
Practically none of those mentioned are made any more.
The only ones left are FR-4 (powder developer), and FR-16 (liquid concentrate developer, best used for paper).
FR-5 was very similar to D-76 (from what I remember of the formula), but the real gem was FR-E24. I think I still have a pack stashed somewhere
All long gone now.
Luckily, they still make liquid (paper) developer and fixer, so I'm not worried about my (paper) needs. I also use FF-1 (liquid fixer) for all my negatives, except for T-Max films... I was told those work much better with TMax fixers - and I can confirm that
I shoot nothing but Efke 25 and 100 for the past 3 or 4 years. It took a lot of getting used to and a lot of testing. Whatever you do, don't use D-76 Horrible results. I hear most people using Rodinal but I have been using Ilfotec-ddx at 1:7 for 14-16 minutes at 68 degrees depending on if I push it slightly. One thing not to do with Efke films is go overboard and overdevelop. I say this but then I think back to my first few rolls. They came out waaay underexposed based on the times I got from digitaltruth. I had to do my own testing. I emailed them my results but they still have some ridiculously short times for Efke in my experience. Again, I use 14 min, 68 degrees, 1:7. The chemistry in Ilfotec is the right stuff to react with the Efke. No pre-wetting the film either. Gives a bad reaction and loses some silver there.
Here's a zoom in at the grain on a piece of one of my negatives showing the latitude, film grain, detail, and typical dust and scratches I get.:
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