Alan, sorry to tell you of the foibles on Chat GPT. Way off. The sodium carbonate makes this developer extremely active at both processing film and self degenerating. Please use as soon as mixed for best results. I will be testing some print strength solutions using milder accelerators to improve tray life but will revert to e72 until I can do that.
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Gainers Original MC-sodium carbonate developer concentrated in glycerine
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Alan Johnson
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OK, but one of Ryuji Suzuki's print developers with added salicylic acid and TEA was reported to last much longer. You may not care for these bolt on goodies though.
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E72 has a tray life of 24 hours, good enough for me, but it has terrible shelf life. I can put the powders for a batch in little pill bottles, then mix with water as needed. The poor working life of MC-glycerol is about what I expected. Suzuki's print developers are way too complicated for me. From Gainers original 1993 chart, the "improved A" with 2.8g sodium bicarbonate + 1.55g sodium hydroxide per quart, or the "improved borax" with 1.7g sodium hydroxide + 6.1g borax per quart would give progressively more shelf life at the cost of lower activity. Double those amounts for print developer. For films these variation will take longer development times than the original sodium carbonate versions and also likely finer grain a the cost of acutance.
Raghu Kuvempunagar
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Useful data. Thanks for sharing Alan.
This is an addendum to this developer information.
1. For my darkroom work making enlarged negatives on ortho litho film, I've used e72 metol version at 1:5 dilution successfully. In comparing this formula with MC-glycerol at 2X strength, the e72 has about twice the metol and twice the ascorbic acid, but similar sodium carbonate and additional sodium sulfite. To use MC-glycerol for this, I would need a 4X strength working solution, which would be uneconomic due to having about 10% glycerol content which is an expensive waste and may interfere with the processing due to sticky goo everywhere. I will continue to use e72 for this. MC-glycerol can be used at 2X for print developing in an emergency, but it is very weak for that use case.
2. I developed a roll of 35mm Kentmere 100 yesterday, and found before mixing the developer that the PH of my sodium carbonate 1.2% solution had dropped a lot, so I mixed a fresh amount just enough for 12 oz developer which is 2.12g. I mixed a liter of this solution a month ago at 12g per quart, and have monitored the PH over time. It has been dropping more than I thought it would over time. I had only about 6 oz left in the bottom of the bottle for a few days, and the PH dropped way down with so little solution and so much air. Going forward, I'm mixing it as I go instead of using a big bottle of solution. So to avoid this problem, I recommend mixing as we go, which is inconvenient, but needed unless we keep our bottles full of solution... This is easier than adjusting the PH as the solution is stored with air in the bottle.
3. I got the same excellent results as always with this developer.
1. For my darkroom work making enlarged negatives on ortho litho film, I've used e72 metol version at 1:5 dilution successfully. In comparing this formula with MC-glycerol at 2X strength, the e72 has about twice the metol and twice the ascorbic acid, but similar sodium carbonate and additional sodium sulfite. To use MC-glycerol for this, I would need a 4X strength working solution, which would be uneconomic due to having about 10% glycerol content which is an expensive waste and may interfere with the processing due to sticky goo everywhere. I will continue to use e72 for this. MC-glycerol can be used at 2X for print developing in an emergency, but it is very weak for that use case.
2. I developed a roll of 35mm Kentmere 100 yesterday, and found before mixing the developer that the PH of my sodium carbonate 1.2% solution had dropped a lot, so I mixed a fresh amount just enough for 12 oz developer which is 2.12g. I mixed a liter of this solution a month ago at 12g per quart, and have monitored the PH over time. It has been dropping more than I thought it would over time. I had only about 6 oz left in the bottom of the bottle for a few days, and the PH dropped way down with so little solution and so much air. Going forward, I'm mixing it as I go instead of using a big bottle of solution. So to avoid this problem, I recommend mixing as we go, which is inconvenient, but needed unless we keep our bottles full of solution... This is easier than adjusting the PH as the solution is stored with air in the bottle.
3. I got the same excellent results as always with this developer.
This developer is now officially from me a no go. The Gainers original formula with metol continues work just fine when I mix it fresh, so will continue to do this for the near future. The batch I mixed into glycerol is no longer working properly at all, giving very low density and contrast. The testing I did was:
1. Testing using short rolls of 10 exposure Kentmere came out fine using MC-glycerol 1:100.
a few weeks later,
2. My first test of a full 36 exposure roll of expired TMY using MC-glycerol 1:100 12 min. came out thin, which I thought showed the developer was exhausted.
3. The next full 36 exposure roll of expired TMY using MC-glycerol 1:50 9 minutes came out superthin, showing the major problem of poor keeping properties for this developer.
I'm not sure of this conclusion, but believe it most likely. There is a potential reaction between metol and glycerol that Gainer warned about at one time. My MC-glycerol has gradually weakened over the last few weeks, unknown by myself due to bad winter weather here keeping me indoors and unable to test shoot any film until the weather improved. I kept it in a new dark glass bottle well stoppered. Further observations are:
1.Not as easy to use measuring syringes as I thought it would be. The ones I got have 3 dirrerent scales on them, and quite confusing to read. The black rubber stopper is 1 ml thick and impossible to read the scale over, so you have to add 1 ml to every measurement to read the scale from the white plunger just above that stopper. I forgot this at least 2 times and shorted myself by one ml, which is a lot when measuring 3.6 ml.
2. The thick and sticky nature of glycerol is not the problem in use I feared it might me. It was in itself easy to use.
3. This was an interesting experiment for several reasons. Experiments can have negative results, but it was good to give it a try in order to possibly gain convenience in my film developing. Part of my interest was historical based on Patrick Gainer's original MC developer published in 1993.
4. The minimum of that developer I can mix accurately is a pint, 16 fl. oz., about half a liter. This requires 3 g sodium carbonate monohydrate (1 tsp) plus 1 g ascorbic acid plus 0.10 g metol. That 0.10 g is hard to measure with my scale able to read hundredths of a gram with about plus or minus 0.02 g accuracy. This covers a single roll of 35mm film better than the 12 oz. I had been using that gave uneven development on one side of the film. This was one improvement I was trying to make, to be able to develop one roll at a time instead of waiting for two rolls as I had been doing for years. This gives much quicker feedback, which I think very important.
5. This developer is one of the three only MC formulas I'm aware of. Ryuji Suzuki's DS-1 and DS-1 along with this one. I find it similar to DS-2, which was modeled after Ilfosol-S. That developer worked OK, but was hard to mix due to five components and has a weak nature not being able to push film contrast at all. Similarly, DS-1 which is a D76 clone similar to E76 used 1:3 gave slightly better results, but was also very weak and failed on one roll of film that had been accidentally fogged on a half dozen frames causing the rest of the roll to be underdeveloped.
1. Testing using short rolls of 10 exposure Kentmere came out fine using MC-glycerol 1:100.
a few weeks later,
2. My first test of a full 36 exposure roll of expired TMY using MC-glycerol 1:100 12 min. came out thin, which I thought showed the developer was exhausted.
3. The next full 36 exposure roll of expired TMY using MC-glycerol 1:50 9 minutes came out superthin, showing the major problem of poor keeping properties for this developer.
I'm not sure of this conclusion, but believe it most likely. There is a potential reaction between metol and glycerol that Gainer warned about at one time. My MC-glycerol has gradually weakened over the last few weeks, unknown by myself due to bad winter weather here keeping me indoors and unable to test shoot any film until the weather improved. I kept it in a new dark glass bottle well stoppered. Further observations are:
1.Not as easy to use measuring syringes as I thought it would be. The ones I got have 3 dirrerent scales on them, and quite confusing to read. The black rubber stopper is 1 ml thick and impossible to read the scale over, so you have to add 1 ml to every measurement to read the scale from the white plunger just above that stopper. I forgot this at least 2 times and shorted myself by one ml, which is a lot when measuring 3.6 ml.
2. The thick and sticky nature of glycerol is not the problem in use I feared it might me. It was in itself easy to use.
3. This was an interesting experiment for several reasons. Experiments can have negative results, but it was good to give it a try in order to possibly gain convenience in my film developing. Part of my interest was historical based on Patrick Gainer's original MC developer published in 1993.
4. The minimum of that developer I can mix accurately is a pint, 16 fl. oz., about half a liter. This requires 3 g sodium carbonate monohydrate (1 tsp) plus 1 g ascorbic acid plus 0.10 g metol. That 0.10 g is hard to measure with my scale able to read hundredths of a gram with about plus or minus 0.02 g accuracy. This covers a single roll of 35mm film better than the 12 oz. I had been using that gave uneven development on one side of the film. This was one improvement I was trying to make, to be able to develop one roll at a time instead of waiting for two rolls as I had been doing for years. This gives much quicker feedback, which I think very important.
5. This developer is one of the three only MC formulas I'm aware of. Ryuji Suzuki's DS-1 and DS-1 along with this one. I find it similar to DS-2, which was modeled after Ilfosol-S. That developer worked OK, but was hard to mix due to five components and has a weak nature not being able to push film contrast at all. Similarly, DS-1 which is a D76 clone similar to E76 used 1:3 gave slightly better results, but was also very weak and failed on one roll of film that had been accidentally fogged on a half dozen frames causing the rest of the roll to be underdeveloped.
After more careful analysis, I believe it's likely my developer inconsistencies are due to my own measurement errors in using measuring syringes as well as sodium carbonate solution storage rather than the developer going bad in the bottle. Here are two examples of my scanned negatives that were taken last fall on Kentmere 100 developed in PC-glycerol 1:100 with what I thought was 6g/liter sodium carbonate solution.
Kentmere 100 MC-glycerol 1:130 12 min. density range 1.03 sodium carbonate likely less than 6g/liter
Kentmere 100 MC-glycerol 1:130 12 min. density range 1.03 sodium carbonate likely less than 6g/liter
For me, the measurement syringes are extremely error prone. I purchased some very tiny measuring spoons that let me mix this developer as a powder, so will likely be using that method, which I believe for me is much more reliable. For others, the developer mixed in glycerol may be much more convenient and reliable.
My current formula for Gainers original MC developer 1:1 dilution is;
Water 16 fl. oz. or 500 ml
sodium carbonate monohydrate 1 tsp
ascorbic acid 1/8 tsp
metol 1/64 tsp
This 1/64 tsp measure give me exactly 0.05 grams of metol.
Kentmere 100 MC-glycerol 1:130 12 min. density range 1.03 sodium carbonate likely less than 6g/liter
Kentmere 100 MC-glycerol 1:130 12 min. density range 1.03 sodium carbonate likely less than 6g/liter
For me, the measurement syringes are extremely error prone. I purchased some very tiny measuring spoons that let me mix this developer as a powder, so will likely be using that method, which I believe for me is much more reliable. For others, the developer mixed in glycerol may be much more convenient and reliable.
My current formula for Gainers original MC developer 1:1 dilution is;
Water 16 fl. oz. or 500 ml
sodium carbonate monohydrate 1 tsp
ascorbic acid 1/8 tsp
metol 1/64 tsp
This 1/64 tsp measure give me exactly 0.05 grams of metol.
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