Film developer for hot summer?

[Ian Grant]

It's far easier to standardise on a higher temperature all round, there's enough drift upwards to cause issues working at 20°C or 22°C when the ambient temperature's in the 30's, I use the air conditioning when it's in the 40's . It's too much to keep dev, fixer & water refrigerated unnecessarily.

It's being forgotten that there should be a minimal change in temperature between dev, & stop/rinse, and stop/rinse then fixer and final wash. If temperatures are drifting quality will suffer.

Having tried cooling with ice & water it's a pain, it's doable but unnecessary, with a tempered water bath it would be easier but I always use inversion tanks Jobo & Paterson and process to the tap water temperature (when in Turkey).

Ian

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

You can use pyro PMK at 80 degrees F.

http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Developers/Times_PMK/times_pmk.html

Makes beautiful BW negs. Temperamental developer though.

 

[DBP]

The simplest solution is the one suggested by one of the earlier posts. Diafine is easy to use, gives good results, and insensitive to temperature. Before I put A/C in the basement to cool the darkroom I would use Diafine all summer at temps up to 80F. Just make sure everything is at room temp.

 

[Leigh B]

I use Diafine with great results, have for over 40 years.

It's rated for use from 70°F to 85°F (21°C to 29°C), and will probably work pretty well beyond that range.

- Leigh