Fp4 in hc110 given varied times, looking for recommendations.

Time for another one of these posts.

So I have two lots of late 70s expired fp4 in 220 (one expired 1978, and imported from australia, the second, 1979 expired and imported from new zealand). I previously shot one roll from each lot at iso 40 and developed normally in d76, and they both turned out well for their age. I just finished my second AU roll this morning, but since I've switched to hc110, I once again have to consult the massive dev chart. it says 7-9 minutes for dilution b. I could skip this issue by using dilution a at 4.5 minutes, but I was wondering, what recommendations would you have for dilution b times?
https://www.digitaltruth.com/devcha...er=HC-110%&mdc=Search&TempUnits=F&TimeUnits=D

I'd always start from Ilford's recommendations, not the massive dev chart. They give times for HC-110 and Ilfotech HC.

It depends on your enlarger. I had a condenser on my Beseler, then a cold light head and now a led lamp from Heiland. In my workflow, all three appeared to need their own development times and the variations can even walk out of the range 0 to 5 when using variable contrast papers. At the moment I mostly correct the Mass Dev times with +15%, which btw mostly are the same as the manufacturers prescriptions. I worked a lot with HC110 and I would not advise more concentrated solutions than B. HC110 is a very thick syrup which needs long agitation to get an even solution, so a high concentration is a bit risky, apart from the fact that short development times are risky for error variations. I keep the plastic bottle with the original syrup apart from a stock solution of 1+3 in a dark glass bottle. I agitate this solution quite long and let it stand a night before I make my working solution with 1+7, which results in 1+31.

Dev Chart recommendations are starting points. You will have to adjust accordingly. I print with a Beseler color head which is a diffusion head. Condenser heads will be different. Also, you’ll have to account what looks good to you

For clarity, I take it that this is FP4, and not the current FP4+.

MattKing said:

For clarity, I take it that this is FP4, and not the current FP4+.

Click to expand...

Yep. Though the 11 minutes d76 1:1 time worked very well.

OK, I developed the film, and I'm soaking it in distilled water over night. I took the suggestion of looking up ilford's data sheet, and found it said 9 minutes in hc100b. I didn't initially consider the idea of looking up ilford's recommendation as I'm used to seeing them only print their own developers on the insides of their boxes. Still... the film turned out gorgeous for its age.