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Harvey's Panthermic 777 developer made again

JLP

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Harvey's Panthermic 777 developer is a favorite of mine for certain films that i use, it is a developer that is a little difficult to get and rumors of lately have been that it is no longer made.
The good news is that it is close to being available again. I just got off the phone with Lori from Bluegrass Packaging who confirmed that they are close.

If you have used the 777 in the past and want to get more or, if you are curious and want to try for the first time, email lori@bluegrasspackaging.com and let her know how much you are interested in buying.
If enough is showing an interest it might speed up the availability.

I currently have enough for years to come but will buy more to help make it available again.

If unfamiliar with this replenishment type developer make a google search and there will be a few hits.
Panthermic 777 is a long lasting developer, my current 1 gallon jug was mixed two and a half year ago and still going strong.
 
Thomas Bertilsson said:
And many opine that the formulas published by Mr. Buffaloe are incorrect, but since nobody but the producer has the actual recipe, nobody can tell with certainty.
Click to expand...


the manufacturers have told me the recipe on that website is ' waaayyy off "
 
Oh... wow, that was quite a string of derails there.
This is very exciting news, and I'll have to write Lori later today.

It seems every so often there's an argument over whether it really lived up to the hype, and some accusations of silver bullet hunting, but I think it's usually better to have more options than less. Maybe now someone will be able to produce some good, objective examples of its behavior.

JLP, how much do you think is a "good supply"? What kind of volume are you running through that batch? I think I remember reading somewhere that BPI had a 5-gallon minimum the last time it was available.
 
How is Panthermic 777 from Bluegrass packaged these days? I'd buy some to keep, but if it's just in a plastic bag (as opposed to in a metal can) I wonder how long it will stay good, even with specific components perhaps sequestered into Part A, Part B, etc.
 
Reading all that stuff led me to Morris Germain's finegrain which is 7g of metol, 70g of sulfite, 7g of paraphenylene diamine and 7g of glycin per liter of solution. I use this as my number one developer for all films..
 
eclarke said:
Reading all that stuff led me to Morris Germain's finegrain which is 7g of metol, 70g of sulfite, 7g of paraphenylene diamine and 7g of glycin per liter of solution. I use this as my number one developer for all films..
Click to expand...

Evan, which would you choose for a normal contrast scenic shot using HP5+ film - Germain's fine grain or FX37 and why? JW
Forgot to add that it will be 120 film in 6x6 format.
 

The last batch i got from bluegrass a few years ago was in thin plastic bags. I don't see any color change but i don't know if anything has changed.
I am still working on a gallon i mixed about two and a half year ago but my replensiher gallon is getting low so i could mix a new gallon just to see if there are any degrading or change to the stored bags, i doubt there is.
 
Will do. it may take a few weeks before i get a chance to test it. If at all interested in this developer please email Lori at Bluegrass. The more emails she get the better the chance of having a new batch made.
 
I have never use the products from Bluegrass, yet I have read that they do have a good product. The problem that I am having with them is all the drama that surrounds them.

If they are close, why would they start up a batch of Harvey's 777, just because there are enough buyers. Because from what I have seen from surfing the net, is that there are a lot of buyers, but they are tired of this on again, off again affair with Bluegrass. They either make it or they do not.

Well that's all I have to say.

#1 Son
 

my guess is that it is a PITA to make ( time consuming, requires effort and might be dangerous )
and they have to make a very large batch, and that while there is always "interest" on the interweb when it comes down to brass tacks,
... 2 out of every 7 people will follow through with their order (if they are lucky).
 

We've been hearing this song and dance now for 6 or 7 years. They're always "close" or "they need one last ingredient" to make up a batch. When it's actually available for purchase I'll buy a 4 gallon case of the powders, but I'm not holding my breath. I have a seasoned gallon mixed up and another 2 gallons of powders.

I've gone back to using Pyrocat and ABC pyro for now as I find them easier to use. I must admit, though, that for whatever reason my best prints were all from TMY negatives developed in 777.

In the meantime I'll email Lori and tell her I'd buy. I've bought a number of cases in years past so she'll know I'm good for it.
 
It's something I'd like to try and I've emailed to express my interest, but no reply yet... should I expect a reply from Lori? Perhaps they're very busy.
 
I'm not holding by breath either and i really don't need more than i have but i promissed to check on availability on another site why i called them.

I wouldn't expect to get a reply from Lori, as Greg is saying the 777 is probably such a small deal to Bluegrass that they are not going to waste much time on email responses until and if they deside to go forward with this.
 


I don't know what bags they're using, but the old Kodak bags are very durable. I've used bags of Microdol-X from the 90s and they've been just fine. A heat-sealed (fused, as opposed to Ziploc-style or tied-off) bag should be pretty safe. If you want to be extra-sure, you could seal the bag in another layer, a FoodSaver-style bag or something, but that's probably overkill.
 
JLP said:
I wouldn't expect to get a reply from Lori, as Greg is saying the 777 is probably such a small deal to Bluegrass that they are not going to waste much time on email responses until and if they deside to go forward with this.
Click to expand...

She replied, saying that she would email me once they made any.
 
This from Lori:

That thread is not entirely accurate. We are not yet in production, but we are getting
closer to being able to produce in the near future. I will put you on the waiting list
and contact you as soon as we have a solid date of availability.
 
Well, it almost sounds like another 5 or 6 years down the road. That's sad, but luckily there are many great developers out there, both manufactured and homemade,
 
JW PHOTO said:
Evan, which would you choose for a normal contrast scenic shot using HP5+ film - Germain's fine grain or FX37 and why? JW
Forgot to add that it will be 120 film in 6x6 format.
Click to expand...
I ise a fair amount of FX37 and it's my go to developer for Efke Aura and my secondary for tmax. It's fairly grainy with HP5, so Germain's for sure.
 
The headline in my first post is inacurate stating that it is made again admitted but, it got the attention from a few readers.

I don't see any inacuracies in the rest of the post.
 
eclarke said:
I ise a fair amount of FX37 and it's my go to developer for Efke Aura and my secondary for tmax. It's fairly grainy with HP5, so Germain's for sure.
Click to expand...

Thanks Evan! I was just curious since I've never used FX37 with HP5+, but like it with TMY2 and Delta 100. I have some UFG I'm going to mix up for some Tri-x(another story), but might run a roll of HP5+ through it to see what I get. The rest of my HP5+ is going into Perceptol 1+2. Thanks again, JW
 
At one time the Unblinkingeye website had a long article of Harvey's 777. Recently I have not been able to find it. The author was a long time user of this developer and made the point that the developer works best in a deep tank of say 3 gallons with replenishment.
 
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