EXG1 is practically the D-23 of glycin film developers, super simple though a pain to mix. It's made in two parts:
Part A -- 10% glycin in TEA
* 70ml triethanolamine 99% grade, heated (I've only been able to source low freeze grade with water contaminate. This is fine though. I use photographer's formulary TEA)
* Add 10g glycin slowly (too much will cause it to cake up and dissolve slower)
* With continued stirring and heating, it'll eventually just suddenly begin dissolving very quickly
* Top to 100ml with TEA
Part B -- 20% potassium carbonate in water
* 400ml of water, room temperature or colder
* Add 120g potassium carbonate, anhydrous. Solution will heat up
* Top to 600ml with water
Appearance: Part B will of course be clear and should last indefinitely. Part A will be a very mild pale brown.
Usage: Add 20ml of part A to 900ml of water. If using a graduate make sure to rinse the graduate several times. Then add 60ml of part B and top to 1L with water. Use working solution within a few hours, it is not stable. Develop FP4+ for 11m. See my website or massive dev chart for more developing times:
https://grainy.vision/blog/exg1-a-bare-bones-glycin-film-developer
Shelf life: Part A will discolor and change in activity over time. I'd estimate that the safe shelf life is 1-2 months, though it will continue to work for much longer with different activity levels. The most notable thing in aging is that the amount of grain will increase. The contrast curves are otherwise fairly linear in the ways they decrease and so an age affected developer will not cause abrupt failure, but will give a change in results. Developer "goodness" can be tested when making the working solution by observing the following:
* The part A stock solution should be a somewhat pinkish orange before introducing water, maybe more yellow when very freshly mixed. If it is a deep brown or orange, it will likely have a difference in results
* When adding the part A to water, if you can catch it, there is sometimes a color change to orange that only lasts very briefly
* After mixed into the water after at most a minute, the solution should then change to a pale straw yellow with a hint of pink. This is the final color. If the solution is brown or a deeper yellow, expect a difference in results
* When adding the carbonate, the solution will turn a deep orange, sometimes even slightly brown. This is expected
* After 30s or so, the solution should return to a the pale final pale pinkish yellow color. If the solution does not undergo the final color change to pale pinkish yellow, then you should expect a significant difference in the results
* The solution should remain close to this color even after development (assuming no antihalation dyes of course)
Characteristics:
* Full speed results with no staining or fogging, even when pushing and with long development times. (note: stand development is untested)
* Fairly normal to slightly increased contrast with slightly increased scale. Tends to give brilliant results when printed with lower contrast highlights that are a bit further away from shadows than normal
* Coarse and sharp but "honest" grain. Grain does not seem to increase very much with additional development. Delta/T-grain films will be VERY grainy, even the slow speed ones.
* Ideal for pushing, additional time seems to maintain a reasonable amount of contrast
* Tends to become slightly more grainy as developer ages, but with minimal differences in contrast until after the "goodness" test becomes questionable.
