Favorite B&W Print Developer Formula

[Snapshot]

Hi All,

I've been experimenting with a few of the home brew print developer formulas. Specifically, the Kodak D-72, Silvergrain DS-14 and the Agfa 100 print developer formulas. They all seem comparable in terms of performance, although there are subtleties between them. So far, I seem to prefer the D-72 for its gradation and the Afga 100 for its luminosity.

Anyone have a favourite print developer formula?

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Ansco 130 of course! It's the only print developer I found that gave a slight edge in terms of the quality of gradations. Very subtle, you have to make a side by side comparison, but it's worth it for FB and RC. I also find that Kodak PolymaxT is very close as well.

 

[Trevor Crone]

I loved Ansco 120 soft working developer which I used almost exclusively with Agfa's Record Rapid and Portriga Rapid papers.

Ansco 120
Water @ 52*C..................750ml
Metol..............................12.3g
Sodium sulphite, anhyd.......36g
Sodium carbonate, anhyd....30g
Potassium bromide..............1g
Water to 1 litre
Use diluted 1:2 or more for 1.5 to 3minutes.

 

[dpurdy]

I have used Dupont 54D for years:
2.7 grms Metol
40 grms sodium sulfite
10.6 grams Hydroq
87 grms sodium carb
.8 grms Bromide
Makes a liter and dilute it 1 - 2

For warm tone you can reduce the sodium carbonate by 2/3s and reduce the Hydroquinone by half and increase the bromide by 4 times.

 

[juan]

Ansco 130 for me, unless I'm using MAS amidol.
juan

 

[JBrunner]

130, BW-65, and Ethol LPD, in that order.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

All I use is Ansco 130. I have tried others of course, and quite like Agfa Neutol WA as well.
1. Very versatile in different dilutions
2. Brings out an amazing range of tones, almost as good as Amidol but cheaper
3. Lasts nearly forever if you can prevent it from evaporating
- Thomas

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Another vote for Ansco 130.

 

[Photo Engineer]

I would suggest checking and comparing them for tray life and capacity.

I have found quite a few developers don't have the capacity stated in the instrucions or data provided, and some have bad tray life.

What this means to me is that if I have to run 24 8x10s in a tray, the first one does not match the last, or if I am running a small batch and my wife calls me for lunch or dinner, the first does not match the last. I feel that quite a few of you are not aware of how fast some developers can change in the tray.

PE

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Ron, if you're going to cast aspersions, at least name your target. WHICH developer(s) do not have keeping value? The most mentioned developer here in this thread is Ansco 130. So which developer is it that "quite a few of you" are missing the boat on? In my experience, Ansco 130 has VERY long keeping life, both in the bottle and in the tray.

 

[JBrunner]

I would suggest checking and comparing them for tray life and capacity.

I have found quite a few developers don't have the capacity stated in the instrucions or data provided, and some have bad tray life.

What this means to me is that if I have to run 24 8x10s in a tray, the first one does not match the last, or if I am running a small batch and my wife calls me for lunch or dinner, the first does not match the last. I feel that quite a few of you are not aware of how fast some developers can change in the tray.

PE

Ansco 130 has always been very consistent for me, and since I develop to completion, I can tell before it stops being consistent, because the developing times start to increase. If I were to continue past that point, it would be an issue. BW-65 is a one shot , mixed up it has a tray life of a few hours, and depletes fairly rapidly, but the results can compare favorably to 130, as long as one pays attention to the tray life. I use LPD when I'm out of developer, can't wait, and need to get some locally, or I'm just cranking out commercial work. I tend to use it one shot, although it is supposed to keep. It's decent stuff, but I don't use it for art, rather for "production images".

 

[Photo Engineer]

I'm sorry Scott, but having an interest in a commercial product would prevent me from commenting on any developer. I'm merely suggesting that you run your own tests to suit your own demands.

PE

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

I'm sorry Scott, but having an interest in a commercial product would prevent me from commenting on any developer. I'm merely suggesting that you run your own tests to suit your own demands.

PE

I can understand that you would not comment on a commercially branded product (e.g. PolymaxT, etc), but with respect to published formula like Ansco 130, I don't see the point of avoiding naming names, no?

OTOH, if you simply did not want people to pester you about longevity claims, then I fear you should not have raised the point at all.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Michel;

There is a third possible answer.

I cannot test every possible developer formulation out there, but I do know the pitfalls and needs inherent in many developers. Therefore I wanted to heighten awareness. Not raising the point would also be as irresposible as naming names.

PE

 

[Richard Wasserman]

I use a slight variation of 54D:

2.7 grams Metol
40 grams sodium sulfite
10.6 grams Hydroquinone
88 grms sodium carbonate
.4 grams potassium bromide
.3 grams Benzotriazole
to 1 liter water

Dilute 1:2 or 1:3 depending on paper

Richard Wasserman

 

[dpurdy]

Are you guys referring to the Adams verison of Ansco 130? I guess I will have to give it a try as I have a bottle of Glycin in the cupboard. the other day I accidentally omitted Hydroquinone from my standard mix leaving only Metol as a developing agent. I couldn't figure out what was wrong for the longest time. I had to process the prints for 3 minutes and I kept getting weak mottled blacks. then I saw my scale was still sitting at the metol measurement and I knew what I did wrong.

 

[JBrunner]

Michel;

There is a third possible answer.

I cannot test every possible developer formulation out there, but I do know the pitfalls and needs inherent in many developers. Therefore I wanted to heighten awareness. Not raising the point would also be as irresposible as naming names.

PE

Don't take their word for it, check it yourself. In that light, logical advice, especially since most published data must assume a median procedure.

Are you involved in the formulation of a new developer, Ron, or do you refer to your status with EK in the earlier post?

 

[Bruce Osgood]

Are you involved in the formulation of a new developer, Ron, or do you refer to your status with EK in the earlier post?

He just may be thinking about Liquidol that he and Bill Troop recently formulated for Photographers Formulary.

 

[climbabout]

paper developer

As I use graded paper, I use Dr. Beers variable contrast developer exclusively. I figure, good enough for Ansel, then good enough for me.
Tim

 

[Snapshot]

It seems the Ansco 130 is very popular. How does glycin keep in powder form? It's my understanding that it does not have good keeping properties.

 

[MurrayMinchin]

I was a total rookie mixing developers from scratch until Lynn Radeka's masking kit suggested making side by side comparisons of prints developed in Selectol Soft and Ansco 120. Then I just had to try Ansco 130 and before you know it I was experimenting like crazy. This is from the print developer section of the articles section;

I loved the look of Ansco 120 developer, and felt Ansco 130 had too much snap and sizzle for my images, but wanted the depth, richness, and keeping qualities of Glycin...so I came up with what I call;

12/15 Developer

750 ml...............................Hot-ish Water
12 grams............................Metol
36 grams............................Sodium Sulfite (anhydrous)
30 grams............................Sodium Carbonate (anhydrous)
45 ml.................................Potassium Bromide (10% solution)
15 grams............................Glycin
Water to make 1 litre of Stock Solution (S.S.)
Add 15 ml of 2% Benzotriazole per litre of S.S.

12/15 S.S. properly contained will easily last a year.
Dilute 1:3 for Working Solution (W.S.)
Use at 70 to 72 degrees F...warm Glycin is happy Glycin.

Because I keep 12/15 W.S. for up to several months in a mylar wine bag (depending how much it gets used) and because I want consistant print results over time, I use the Emergence Time (E.T.) of the image in the developer, multiplied by a Development Factor (D.F.) to find development times.

This developer has a slow image E.T. so I use the E.T. of the negatives clear edge multiplied by a D.F. of 4.5 for normal development. An E.T. of 40 seconds multiplied by a D.F. of 4.5 equals a developing time of 3 minutes. When the E.T. gets to about 48 seconds I toss it because developing times start getting too long for my tastes.

Applying a larger D.F. doesn't result in an overall darkening of the image, but has proportionally more effect on the darker print values...a quality which I believe is unique to Glycin.

This developer, at least with Ilford Multigrade IV FB glossy paper, and toned in selenium, gives a beautiful richness of tone and colour when viewed under tungsten light.

A word of warning - not much of anything happens in the first minute, a little in the second, but it really picks up speed in the third.

Somebody mentioned quite a while ago that I could skip the benzotriazole and ramp back on the potassium bromide which would allow the Glycin to work subtle magic in the highlights. Once the darkroom is up and running I'm going to give that a try.

Murray

 

[Photo Engineer]

Don't take their word for it, check it yourself. In that light, logical advice, especially since most published data must assume a median procedure.

Are you involved in the formulation of a new developer, Ron, or do you refer to your status with EK in the earlier post?

I have worked out a developer with Bill Troop of A&T fame, and it is on sale by the Formulary (Liquidol). The Super Universal Fix is near final stages, and Bill and I are now working on a new High Acutance developer.

PE

 

[removed account4]

ansco 130 for me

lasts almost forever ..

 

[Uncle Bill]

I am partial to Dektol after messing around with Ilfords Multigrade Paper Developer. I made the switch after the solution kept losing strength in the tray.

 

[jim appleyard]

It seems the Ansco 130 is very popular. How does glycin keep in powder form? It's my understanding that it does not have good keeping properties.

I've found that glycin does not keep well. Plus, it's such a fine powder and very easy to spill, I don't use it anymore. One sneeze and we're all dead!

However, I do like Ansco 130. It does last longer than other devs I've used, but not forever. I get a few days out of it before the print contrast gets wimpy.