My present project is using Gainers "Original" MC developer that was published in 1994. I've been experimenting with this and liking it a lot in a concentrated water solution, and am planning on concentrating it into a supersaturated solution of ascorbic and and metol in glycerol for extending shelf life and convenience, kind of like so many variations of PC-glycol, PC-TEA, and various others. In researching this, I've read lots of threads here on Photrio so have recently joined here.
The original Gainer formula, which he calls "original" in the first colum of his table 1 has variations. One is for metol, the other for phenidone. The phenidone branch has been broadly expanded by many variation, largely due to its lower cost and solubility in propylene and ethylene glycol. The metol branch has been largely dropped like a lead weight except for a few staining developers that so many seem to love so much. From my reading, metol is hard to dissolve in propylene glycol without using a water paste and small volume of TEA.
Gainers Original MC developer. 2g ascorbic acid + 0.2g metol + 6g sodium carbonate monohydrate in a quart of water. I like this developer because it's very simple with 3 components, extremely cheap to make, and works very well. It's a strong and fast developer that works as fast as d76 stock, and is able to push process at least 2 stops from my experience. I'm not a push processor, but discovered this by accident the first time I tested it. It's also a useful paper developer when mixed at double strength. I do not make paper prints often, but process ortho litho film to high gamma in my negative enlargement process. It gives what I would call moderate acutance (I use 35mm Kentmere 100) with fine grain. The results look similar to me to using Ryuji Suzuki's DS-1 developer diluted 1:2, or his DS-2 1:1.5. These are both MC developers from the past mimicking D76 and Ilfosol-S respectively. They are both weak developers compared with Gainers Original, and use lots more chemistry.
There have been so many discussions here between Pat Gainer and others about this and that relating to developers and polyols like propylene glycol, glycerine, and triethanolamine. Gainers tells stories about using glycerine when he's out of glycol. I found a US patent US 6020367A owned by Avon Products entitled "Supersaturated Ascorbic Acid Solutions" where dissolving certain chemicals well above their STP solubilities in heated solutions of polyols gives stable supersaturated solutions when cooled way down. According to this patent, glycerine is the best polyol for this, and able to dissolve as much ascorbic acid as 25% of the weight of the polyol. Metol is normally soluble in glycerine, so will not be a problem here like it is in glycol or triethanolamine.
My plan is to heat 80 ml glycerol in the microwave very carefully while monitoring temperature to about 200 deg. F. or more if needed, dissolve 10g ascorbic acid, and then 1g metol and cool down to ambient with a saran wrap cover on top, then top off to 100 ml, then bottle. This should give the Gainer Standard MC developer on dilution of 1:50 into a solution of 6g sodium carbonate monohydrate per quart of water. The 100 ml concentrate should give 5 quarts of working solution. Metol gives better quality images than phenidone in my opinion. I also have about half and pound of it and don't want to order any phenidone until I have no choice. I would call this MC-glycerol and it could be used with any accelerant just like PC-glycol.
Comments and suggestions are very welcome.
Attached is a phone scan of one of my test negatives using Gainers Original on 35mm Kentmere 100 at ei100 for 9 min. at 72 deg. F. I should have used temperature correction giving about 7 minutes, but was very unsure of this developer, so wanted to error on the side of overdevelopment. The negative is overdeveloped about a stop in my opinion.
The original Gainer formula, which he calls "original" in the first colum of his table 1 has variations. One is for metol, the other for phenidone. The phenidone branch has been broadly expanded by many variation, largely due to its lower cost and solubility in propylene and ethylene glycol. The metol branch has been largely dropped like a lead weight except for a few staining developers that so many seem to love so much. From my reading, metol is hard to dissolve in propylene glycol without using a water paste and small volume of TEA.
Gainers Original MC developer. 2g ascorbic acid + 0.2g metol + 6g sodium carbonate monohydrate in a quart of water. I like this developer because it's very simple with 3 components, extremely cheap to make, and works very well. It's a strong and fast developer that works as fast as d76 stock, and is able to push process at least 2 stops from my experience. I'm not a push processor, but discovered this by accident the first time I tested it. It's also a useful paper developer when mixed at double strength. I do not make paper prints often, but process ortho litho film to high gamma in my negative enlargement process. It gives what I would call moderate acutance (I use 35mm Kentmere 100) with fine grain. The results look similar to me to using Ryuji Suzuki's DS-1 developer diluted 1:2, or his DS-2 1:1.5. These are both MC developers from the past mimicking D76 and Ilfosol-S respectively. They are both weak developers compared with Gainers Original, and use lots more chemistry.
There have been so many discussions here between Pat Gainer and others about this and that relating to developers and polyols like propylene glycol, glycerine, and triethanolamine. Gainers tells stories about using glycerine when he's out of glycol. I found a US patent US 6020367A owned by Avon Products entitled "Supersaturated Ascorbic Acid Solutions" where dissolving certain chemicals well above their STP solubilities in heated solutions of polyols gives stable supersaturated solutions when cooled way down. According to this patent, glycerine is the best polyol for this, and able to dissolve as much ascorbic acid as 25% of the weight of the polyol. Metol is normally soluble in glycerine, so will not be a problem here like it is in glycol or triethanolamine.
My plan is to heat 80 ml glycerol in the microwave very carefully while monitoring temperature to about 200 deg. F. or more if needed, dissolve 10g ascorbic acid, and then 1g metol and cool down to ambient with a saran wrap cover on top, then top off to 100 ml, then bottle. This should give the Gainer Standard MC developer on dilution of 1:50 into a solution of 6g sodium carbonate monohydrate per quart of water. The 100 ml concentrate should give 5 quarts of working solution. Metol gives better quality images than phenidone in my opinion. I also have about half and pound of it and don't want to order any phenidone until I have no choice. I would call this MC-glycerol and it could be used with any accelerant just like PC-glycol.
Comments and suggestions are very welcome.
Attached is a phone scan of one of my test negatives using Gainers Original on 35mm Kentmere 100 at ei100 for 9 min. at 72 deg. F. I should have used temperature correction giving about 7 minutes, but was very unsure of this developer, so wanted to error on the side of overdevelopment. The negative is overdeveloped about a stop in my opinion.