Fotospeed LD20 Lith Developer, Homebrewed?

[An Le-qun]

I really like everything about Fotospeed's LD20--except the price. Does anyone have a homebrew formula that comes close?

As an added wrinkle, the datasheet for the developer lists sodium formaldehyde bilsulfite--can anyone advise me on mixing an acceptable substitute using formalin, sodium sulfite and/or sodium bisulfite?

Le-qun

 

[Jerevan]

I don't know if comes close to LD20 but might be worth a try for homebrew lith:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[Dan Henderson]

I mixed up some of the Dr. Jekyll #2 described in Jervan's link. It was extraordinarily fast and tended to be streaky. Any idea what would cause this?

 

[Jerevan]

I am at a loss - but the inventor says something about streaks in the recipe for Dr Jekyll No. 1, not recommending to replenish or using Old Brown for that particular brew. Could be that it is exhausted? Maybe you could put some Potassium Bromide in the mix?

 

[Dan Henderson]

I read the formulas from Tim Rudman's book. The first batch I jumped from #1 to #2 partway through, ending up adding KBR but no NACl. Realized my mistake and added salt. Then dumped the developer that was oxidizing like mad and made up a second batch following the instructions correctly. I got a nice pinky highlight color the second time around, but it was still way to fast and splotchy. It was, to overuse an already dog-eared phrase, infectious development on steroids. I tried adding some water hoping to slow things down a bit but that didn't help.

 

[Jerevan]

Do you use it at 20 C? What paper are you trying to do steroid lith on?

(not pretending to be an expert here - just interested in figuring this out)

 

[Dan Henderson]

The first batch was somewhere between and 20 and 25c. I thought of the 20c specification on the second batch and made sure it was at that temp. In other words I did just about everything wrong with the first batch that was possible. But the second was per directions. I was using my usual Fomatone 131 paper.

One other point: I did not have Kosher salt so used sea salt, which was specified as being not iodized. I assumed that was the reason for the Kosher salt.

 

[Jerevan]

Yeah, I figured it was Fomatone 131, after having a look at your photos in the gallery.

Only thing I can think of right now is that even non-iodized salt can contain an anti-caking agent which is detrimental to some alt processes. Kosher salt should not contain this. Not sure if this is the culprit here, though.

I've seen references to a Dr Jekyll No. 3 in WOLP but I don't have the book at hand and don't remember if there is any recipe for it.

 

[Dan Henderson]

there is a formula for #3, but the author says that it is prone to streaking and swirling and needs more work.

I wondered about the salt too. I will probably get some Kosher and mix up another batch to test.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

Kosher salt contains S. Ferrocyanide ("Yellow Prussiate of Soda") as the anti-caking agent. The photographic chemical is P. Ferricyanide - not sure what the ferro form will do to photochemistry.

The purest salt one can get at the grocery store is 'Pickling' or 'Canning' salt.