Film developer with(out) hydroquinone
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So you are looking for a developer WITHOUT HQ, right? Glycine is not available easily here in my country so I am a little bit jealous. You have quite many options:
- I would love to test some of 777 developer alternatives, like https://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Harvey/harvey.html (requires PPD).
- What about Crawley FX-2 or its variant FX-2K (I was told that Pinacryptol yellow can be omitted with modern emulsions.)
- Plain simple Agfa 8 is IMHO worth testing too.
- Some Focal glycine-based developer variant?
Some hints are here on Photrio https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/glycin-anyone.3704/
- I would love to test some of 777 developer alternatives, like https://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Harvey/harvey.html (requires PPD).
- What about Crawley FX-2 or its variant FX-2K (I was told that Pinacryptol yellow can be omitted with modern emulsions.)
- Plain simple Agfa 8 is IMHO worth testing too.
- Some Focal glycine-based developer variant?
Some hints are here on Photrio https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/glycin-anyone.3704/
Thornton's Two Bath developer.
Instant mytol (xtol variant/clone). Here's a formula:
| For milliliters: | 1000 | 500 | 300 | 250 | 150 |
| Borax | 1.4g | 0.7g | 0.42g | 0.35g | 0.21g |
| Sodium sulfite (anh) | 60g | 30g | 18g | 15g | 9g |
| Ascorbic acid | 11.5g | 5.75g | 3.45g | 2.88g | 1.73g |
| Sodium carbonate (monohydrate) | 5.64g | 2.82g | 1.69g | 1.41g | 0.85g |
| Phenidone | 0.15g (150mg) | 0.075g (75mg) | 0.045g (45mg) | 0.0375g (37.5mg) | 0.0225g (22.5mg) |
Of course weighing this small amount of phenidone accurately is hard to do, so make a 1% solution in polypropylene glycol and add the necessary amount of solution with a pipette or small syringe. This solution keeps very well.
Development times: use XTOL times and adjust based on experience. A slight reduction in development compared to official XTOL may be necessary, although I just keep using XTOL times.
This is currently my preferred film developer for a couple of reasons. I prefer to use it one shot; mix right before use and discard afterwards. You could attempt replenishment I presume but I never bothered since it's rather cheap to make anyway and it is relatively environmentally 'friendly'.
D23
Exactly. Three ingredients, if you count water. Metol, sodium sulfite, in the right proportion. Nothing else needed. Takes longer than D-76, gives up a little speed in comparison, but it gets the job done. There's also a formula for its replenisher, DK-25r, which is useful if you want the shorter process times of stock but want to get more film from your ingredients.
I''m home now and have found my copy of Darkroom cookbook. Thanks to all for your suggestions. Unfortunately all of the suggestions contained at least one ingredient that I don't have on hand.
I don't have asoboric acid (don't know if anything at a supermarket can be used as a substitute?)
777 has Paraphenylene Diamine which I don't have.
Thornton's has Sodium metaborate which I don't have.
I think I'll go with D23, Cookbook says full strength for 12 minutes, does that sound about right?
I don't have asoboric acid (don't know if anything at a supermarket can be used as a substitute?)
777 has Paraphenylene Diamine which I don't have.
Thornton's has Sodium metaborate which I don't have.
I think I'll go with D23, Cookbook says full strength for 12 minutes, does that sound about right?
Ascorbic acid is simply Vitamin C.
Yeah, as @Nodda Duma says, it's just vitamin C. I use powder which is easily available online and in brick & mortar drugstores, but I suppose the omnipresent tablets would work as well. The filler won't dissolve and there will be some additional ingredients that will probably not interfere with development, but you never know. Powder is best & fairly easy to get anyway. Easier than hydroquinone in any case.
You can make metaborate out of borax and lye. Google for it, recipes are posted here and there, also on photrio.
D23 of course is a perfectly fine solution as well, and about the simplest you can think of.
Another potential option is Parodinal. Acetaminophen (tablets work fine), lye drain opener, and sodium sulfite. Very different character from D-23; no grain reduction (works exactly like commercial Rodinal, same dilutions and times).
And yes, 12 minutes in D-23 stock sounds fairly reasonable. If you like, you can also dilute D-23 1+1 and use it one-shot, though I've never done so -- I ran a batch replenished for a year or so back around 2005.
And yes, 12 minutes in D-23 stock sounds fairly reasonable. If you like, you can also dilute D-23 1+1 and use it one-shot, though I've never done so -- I ran a batch replenished for a year or so back around 2005.
But with some drawbacks IMO:
* Somewhat challenging to get everything in solution
* Usually you're left with a lot of undissolved muck unless you have access to pure aceteminophen instead of paracetamol tablets (purifying it is a bit of a hassle)
* Solution is supposed to ripen before use, so cannot be used immediately
* Reduced film speed + increased grain, but this is a matter of taste.
* Doesn't keep nearly as well as any retail rodinal clone IMO, not even the modern ones that don't keep as well as the genuine stuff from yesteryear.
Many of the above issues can be solved or circumvented by using for instance pure aceteminophen, and potassium salts for the sulfite and hydroxide, but this increases costs a bit and most importantly makes it a little less easy to source the chemicals.
However...it is kind of fun to make this one, especially since it's of course a concentrate that can be diluted LOTS, which has its own kind of charm.
I've kept Parodinal for up to year, and it still worked; I always ran down to too little concentrate to be easy to measure, without failure. For a homemade developer, that's pretty good (and you can make as small a batch as you like, the formula that's online uses 24 tablets, 12 g of acetaminophen to make IIRC 250 ml of concentrate which gives up to 2.5 L of working solution at 1:100).
I never had trouble getting everything to dissolve, and seasoning can be accelerated by dissolving the lye, then the acetaminophen, and the sulfite last after the solution starts to turn pink. Yes, there's a little scum from the tableting starch and wax, but in my experience it floats and can be mostly skimmed off.
There are drawbacks to D-23 as well -- loss of both speed and sharpness compared to MQ or especially PQ developers. Needing to compensate time if you reuse the stock (vs. having to develop even longer if you dilute).
Still, both accessible, both easy to mix and use. I agree, I'd prefer to have pure powdered acetaminophen. Apparently it is actually available under its IUPAC name, but you have to buy a kilo or so and pay several times as much as you would for 2000 caplets of headache pills at a discount retailer.
I never had trouble getting everything to dissolve, and seasoning can be accelerated by dissolving the lye, then the acetaminophen, and the sulfite last after the solution starts to turn pink. Yes, there's a little scum from the tableting starch and wax, but in my experience it floats and can be mostly skimmed off.
There are drawbacks to D-23 as well -- loss of both speed and sharpness compared to MQ or especially PQ developers. Needing to compensate time if you reuse the stock (vs. having to develop even longer if you dilute).
Still, both accessible, both easy to mix and use. I agree, I'd prefer to have pure powdered acetaminophen. Apparently it is actually available under its IUPAC name, but you have to buy a kilo or so and pay several times as much as you would for 2000 caplets of headache pills at a discount retailer.
Have a look at the Pictorial Planet video on D23. It is even one of those developers that can be measured out accurately enough with kitchen tea and tablespoon measures so no scales needed
The presenter John Finch shows prints as well and as far as I could see from those prints there was no noticeable loss of sharpness and John Finch states if I recall in one of his replies that it suffers no loss of speed in practical terms
pentaxuser
The presenter John Finch shows prints as well and as far as I could see from those prints there was no noticeable loss of sharpness and John Finch states if I recall in one of his replies that it suffers no loss of speed in practical terms
pentaxuser
"A substitution for sodium metaborate octahydrate is to use 9.5 grams of sodium hydroxide and 45.4 grams of borax decahydrated in water to make 1 liter. This is equivalent to 10% solution of sodium metaborate octahydrate. This can be made from Red Devil Lye and 20 Mule Team Borax and safely used in formulas as a substitute (20ml of a 10% solution = 2 grams; 25ml = 2.5 grams; etc.)."
Quoted from https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...86_5LB_Sodium_Metaborate_Balanced_Alkali.html
@Raghu Kuvempunagar I've used that method (combining laundry borax and drain opener lye) in mixing DK-25r replenisher for D-23. I just added the individual ingredients to the solution at the point I'd have added the Kodalk.
Sadly I wasn't so fortunate. A few months in and it wasn't reliable anymore in terms of concentration. In itself not a disaster, but I don't like having a developer at hand of unknown strength.
I sure did. It probably depends on the makeup of the paracetamol tablets, but I have always been left with a kind of thick, murky paste that reminded me more of Hubl paste than of rodinal. It worked OK, but it sure didn't look pretty the few times I made it.
d-76h
Pretty sure that includes the hydroquinone the OP doesn't have (title should read "without" rather than "with").
Bunch of mad scientists in here, myself included. 
Haist variation of d-76 ommits hidroquinone and metol is raised to 2,5 grams, same times as d-76, less inconsistencies in long term storage
This is supposedly a variant by Haist which has no hydroquinone, but an increased amount of metol, at 2,5g/l. It's not an official variant.
Nicholas Lindan
Advertiser
Well, if you are going for D-23, why not move on to Microdol with the addition of pickling salt from the supermarket. Pickling salt is pure sodium chloride with no additives. Sodium citrate makes a respectable dichroic fog preventative for the -X variant of Microdol (sodium citrate can be made from citric acid and baking soda (both supermarket chemicals)).
Microdol full-strength loses 1 stop of film speed. Used 1:3 the film speed stays the same; the grain (such as it is) is more distinct but still very fine. If you have already shot the film then 1:3 is the way to go.
You can use Ilford's Perceptol times for Microdol-X; the developers seem to be well nigh indistinguishable (well, with the exception you can buy Perceptol while M-X is long gone).
With phenidone you can make POTA - but I don't think that would be good fit for FP4.
--
P.S. A little plug for using T-Max 100 with 1:3 M-X/Perceptol - the resulting grain is comparable to Tech Pan/Technidol. If you have the chance it is worth trying the combination at least once. Delta-100 may produce just as fine a grain, I just developed a roll of same in same, need to do a 10x enlargement to see how it looks.
Microdol full-strength loses 1 stop of film speed. Used 1:3 the film speed stays the same; the grain (such as it is) is more distinct but still very fine. If you have already shot the film then 1:3 is the way to go.
You can use Ilford's Perceptol times for Microdol-X; the developers seem to be well nigh indistinguishable (well, with the exception you can buy Perceptol while M-X is long gone).
With phenidone you can make POTA - but I don't think that would be good fit for FP4.
--
P.S. A little plug for using T-Max 100 with 1:3 M-X/Perceptol - the resulting grain is comparable to Tech Pan/Technidol. If you have the chance it is worth trying the combination at least once. Delta-100 may produce just as fine a grain, I just developed a roll of same in same, need to do a 10x enlargement to see how it looks.
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Correct, after I posted it and then tried to edit it I found I could edit my message but not the title.
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