Fotospeed FD 10 ?

[MrFatPooh]

Does anyone use this stuff and what do you reckon ?

I am just starting out learning about photography and have developed foma and fuji films using FD10, the Foma seems to come out better the Fuji seems a bit flat.

 

[Tom Kershaw]

FD10 works fine. If the negatives are flat, increase development time and be aware of temperature. If the process time is (for example) 10 minutes @ 20ºC, that temperature needs to be maintained at 20ºC throughout the 10 minutes; if the temperature decreases the development time has to correspondingly increase to maintain equivalent negative density.

Tom

 

[Ian Grant]

Foma films are rather contrasty which is why they seen better.

Ian

 

[Steve Roberts]

FD10 is my "standard" film developer. Much along the lines of what Tom says, I find that maintaining the temperature is important and the times quoted (in notes so small that you need a microscope!) are a little optimistic. I normally give a couple of minutes longer than the recommended times for my usual FP4 and I suspect you'd have to go a long way to end up with overdevelopment. I normally pre-soak, but the original reason for doing so was that my darkroom (where the loaded tank/film will have been) and kitchen (where I develop) are both unheated, so in the depths of winter it helps to get the film and tank up to temperature so they don't have a cooling effect on the developer. Keeping properties of FD10 are excellent and a major selling point for me. Exclude the air by squishing the bottle and /or throwing in air balls and it will easily keep for a year.

Steve

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Steve,

Do you mix your commercially packaged film developers with tap water?

Tom

 

[MrFatPooh]

yeah tap water its all i've got. i use filtered water for the final rinse though.

I will try another minute of development and see if that helps.

out of interest how would you maintain this constant temperature, i develop in the kitchen is fairly warm so dont think temperature would drop to much over the course of 10 minutes.

begginers question here, what can i expect from adding another minute to dev time, more contrast ?

 

[Tom Kershaw]

out of interest how would you maintain this constant temperature, i develop in the kitchen is fairly warm so dont think temperature would drop to much over the course of 10 minutes.

Measure the temperature of the kitchen with your thermometer, - this room temperature is what you can hope to maintain in tank development without a warm water bath. Therefore your room temperature should be at least 18ºC.

begginers question here, what can i expect from adding another minute to dev time, more contrast ?

- yes

Added caution: If you're processing film in the kitchen be very certain to clean up the chemistry etc. after finishing.

Tom

 

[Steve Roberts]

Steve,

Do you mix your commercially packaged film developers with tap water?

Tom

Yes, Tom. The tap water where I live is very soft (ie no lime) so no worries about using it straight in photographic applications, car batteries, cooling systems, etc..

A large saucepan of water at the correct temperature (or perhaps a degree higher) serves to keep the tank temperature constant over the developing period.

I don't worry too much about cleaning up spilled chemicals as I find that next morning's toast absorbs all that quite well !

Steve

 

[pentaxuser]

If you want to see what the drop in temp is then choose a typical time in the kitchen or wherever, fill with water and "develop" for the recommended or chosen time and measure the temp drop in the water then adjust accordingly. Unless your dev times are very long and/or the room temp is way below the temp needed for the dev then the drop, especially in a plastic tank is likely to be small and a water pre-soak at a higher temp should keep the temp up.

pentaxuser

 

[mrcamm]

another vote here for fd-10. oly developer i've ever used - never felt the need to switch brand.

 

[MrFatPooh]

ok Fuji 100 across developed in FD10 for 9 minutes makes really good negs, Fuji Neopan 400's are OK but not as good as the across, I will ask a friend who uses Rodinal to develop some of the 400's and see how that comes out.

 

[MrFatPooh]

how is fotospeed FD10 with Kodak TMAX 100, I have heard that TMAX is fussy,

i just shot my first roll of TMAX does anyone know if this combination works well ?