hc110 first time use- any tips?

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

The titles says it all.
While I've got a little d76 left, I'm going to be using hc110 for the first time later this month. Any experienced users got any advice/ tips?

 

[btaylor]

http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/
All you need to know about HC110.

 

[ced]

As the bottle gets used keep the air out.

 

[John Bragg]

As the bottle gets used keep the air out.

Decant into smaller bottles and get a syringe to accurately measure for one shot. Not so sure of the new formula, but the old stuff went darker with age, although that didn't mean it was losing potency. Good luck and enjoy.

 

[Laurent]

I took the habit to mix a working solution @ 1+3, usually I prepare one liter in two old HC110 bottles (1/2 l each), this keeps for ages (at least longer than the time it takes me to use them, but this can be several months)

I use "protectan" to fill the bottles with sometjing else than air, not sure it helps.

 

[mshchem]

Make up a 2 L bottle and replenish. Dilution B

 

[Wallendo]

Pick up a few 10ml syringes and "blunt tip needles" (I got mine from amazon) 14 guage is the ideal size; ( like these for example https://www.amazon.com/20-Pack-Blun...=blunt+tip+needle&qid=1591109949&sr=8-20&th=1 ) This is the easiest way to draw up HC-110. Especially with the older formulations of HC-110, decanting into a graduated cylinder can be challenging.

These also work well for drawing up Rodinal and other concentrated liquid developers.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/
All you need to know about HC110.

Just not sure how I feel about the 6ml for dil. h that's listed for the 300ml tank.

Decant into smaller bottles and get a syringe to accurately measure for one shot. Not so sure of the new formula, but the old stuff went darker with age, although that didn't mean it was losing potency. Good luck and enjoy.

Any recommendations for smaller bottles?

Make up a 2 L bottle and replenish. Dilution B

Makes sense, but I have a few films that only have dil. h times available.

Pick up a few 10ml syringes and "blunt tip needles" (I got mine from amazon) 14 guage is the ideal size; ( like these for example https://www.amazon.com/20-Pack-Blunt-Dispensing-Needle/dp/B07QYMD2VB/ref=sr_1_20?dchild=1&keywords=blunt+tip+needle&qid=1591109949&sr=8-20&th=1 ) This is the easiest way to draw up HC-110. Especially with the older formulations of HC-110, decanting into a graduated cylinder can be challenging.

These also work well for drawing up Rodinal and other concentrated liquid developers.

Yep, already got some syringes.

 

[K-G]

Here is an old thread but it works great. HC-110 at 1+49 for most films.

Karl-Gustaf
https://www.photrio.com/forum/resources/hc110-made-simple.220/

 

[MattKing]

I used HC-110 in a replenishment regime for years, but as the replenisher is no longer manufactured, it is more difficult to do that now. Unlike HC-110, X-Tol can maintain stability in a replenishment regime when you use it as its own replenisher, so for replenishment I've switched to X-Tol.
I have used HC-110 one shot over the years, and I'm sure I will continue to do so for certain projects.
The new stuff is apparently much less viscous than the old HC-110.
But even with the old, I don't bother with a syringe.
I use a 45ml Paterson measured graduate and put 30 ml of water into it.
I then slowly pour the syrup into the centre of the water, until the meniscus goes up to the 36 ml mark.
I then dump the small graduate into a larger measuring graduate and rinse it a couple of times into that same graduate. I then add enough water to bring the total volume to 300 ml - I use Jason Brunner's 1 + 49 dilution. https://www.photrio.com/forum/resources/hc110-made-simple.220/
You need 6 ml of the syrup to be confident that you won't run into local exhaustion - that 6 ml capacity figure is an extrapolation of Kodak's capacity recommendations (which are undoubtedly quite conservative). Some people use less, but that leaves them vulnerable to local exhaustion problems with some negatives. Using too little syrup has been used to achieve some compensating effects, at the expense of a risk of thinner negatives.
For those reasons, dilution H is only reliable in bigger tanks - often with an empty reel to fill space.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

For those reasons, dilution H is only reliable in bigger tanks - often with an empty reel to fill space.

I might try that when I get to those films.

 

[jamesaz]

I’ve been using it for years. I mixed a quart in January and when I examined my processed film I had streaking from uneven development obvious in cloudless sky areas (4x5 sheet). After consideration I concluded that I had not stirred the syrup into the water well enough. (Very few problems in my photography occur that cannot be traced back to operator malfunction). Anyway, my tip is just to be certain you stir it well. It’s a good product. Have fun and good luck

 

[alanrockwood]

Plan on giving your film slightly more exposure than you are used to with your old process. HC110 typically causes a slight loss of film speed. It might not be enough to worry about, given the fact that B&W film has pretty broad exposure latitude, but why not be on the safe side? How much extra exposure you ask? I dunno, maybe 1/3 stop compared to D76. What does everyone else think?

 

[Donald Qualls]

Plan on giving your film slightly more exposure than you are used to with your old process. HC110 typically causes a slight loss of film speed. It might not be enough to worry about, given the fact that B&W film has pretty broad exposure latitude, but why not be on the safe side? How much extra exposure you ask? I dunno, maybe 1/3 stop compared to D76. What does everyone else think?

I've never used D-76 at home (had it in high school and college darkrooms, supplied by the school, but didn't pay that much attention in those days), but I've used a fair amount of HC-110. In my experience you can easily get back that 1/3 stop and more by slightly extending development and reducing agitation to avoid increasing contrast. For instance, add 10% to your standard time, and then agitate only every third minute. In my experience, this works especially well with higher dilutions like G and H.

CAVEAT: my experience with HC-110 is with the "old" syrup; from recent reading, I doubt there are changes in the new that would invalidate this (Kodak/Kodak Alaris/Tetenal seem to have done a good job duplicating the working character), but I haven't tried it -- and won't, soon, as I still have an unopened bottle of the old syrup left from my old darkroom.

 

[cb1]

easy peasy … HC110 (B) 15ml in a graduated container, add water to 16oz (a one 120 reel/two 35mm reel tank) mix it up and add to developing tank. follow time directions.

 

[Pentode]

I use dilution H most often and leave an empty reel in the tank to make sure I have enough concentrate for each roll. Occasionally I’ve cheated a bit and gone down to 5ml per roll and I got away with it but I don’t make it a habit to gamble like that.

HC-110 is very sensitive to dilution so be sure to measure as accurately as possible. Fairly small changes in dilution can lead to noticeable differences in behavior.

Dilution B usually results in pretty quick dev times and the results are very similar to D-76 straight but maybe a little less mid contrast (IME). Dilution H times are exactly twice as long (which I like) and the results are more similar (to my eye) to D76 1:1 with, perhaps, a little more acutance.

I’ve only used the old, syrupy stuff (I have some stockpiled). As I understand it, the new stuff behaves exactly the same but is not expected to have the same shelf life. For decanting into smaller containers I ended up buying a bunch of 125ml hot sauce style bottles that I use to decant both HC-110 and Rodinal. I suspect that brown glass ‘Boston round’ bottles from a real lab glass supplier would be a nicer choice but these have worked fine for me.

As a fellow D-76 user I also feel the need to mention that, while I really like HC-110 for its convenience and incredible versatility, I tend to prefer the mid tones I get with D-76 1:1, especially with traditional-grain films.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

I use dilution H most often and leave an empty reel in the tank to make sure I have enough concentrate for each roll. Occasionally I’ve cheated a bit and gone down to 5ml per roll and I got away with it but I don’t make it a habit to gamble like that.

HC-110 is very sensitive to dilution so be sure to measure as accurately as possible. Fairly small changes in dilution can lead to noticeable differences in behavior.

Dilution B usually results in pretty quick dev times and the results are very similar to D-76 straight but maybe a little less mid contrast (IME). Dilution H times are exactly twice as long (which I like) and the results are more similar (to my eye) to D76 1:1 with, perhaps, a little more acutance.

I’ve only used the old, syrupy stuff (I have some stockpiled). As I understand it, the new stuff behaves exactly the same but is not expected to have the same shelf life. For decanting into smaller containers I ended up buying a bunch of 125ml hot sauce style bottles that I use to decant both HC-110 and Rodinal. I suspect that brown glass ‘Boston round’ bottles from a real lab glass supplier would be a nicer choice but these have worked fine for me.

As a fellow D-76 user I also feel the need to mention that, while I really like HC-110 for its convenience and incredible versatility, I tend to prefer the mid tones I get with D-76 1:1, especially with traditional-grain films.

I've got the new hc110, but haven't opened it yet.

I've been using D76 1:1 for all my developments, so maybe I should experiment and see if dil H and 1:1 are similar.

And, I learned to develop film using Sprint Standard, but switched to D76 last summer when I decided I was ready to process my film at home. It'll be interesting to try something new.

 

[Donald Qualls]

IMO, the biggest disadvantage of HC-110 is the same one Ansel Adams pointed out (somewhere in The Negative): the manufacturer can make changes without warning or (if they don't change the packaging) notice. In today's information society, we'll generally get notified after the fact, at least, but we can't do anything to stop it.

The same is true of any packaged developer, of course, liquid or powder. Now that I have a permanent darkroom, I'm strongly considering moving to fully mix-my-own chemistry. There's lots of money to be saved buying raw chemicals, and as dry powders (or in some cases, concentrated liquids, like 60% ammonium thiosulfate solution or glacial acetic acid), they keep almost forever. Almost every commercial developer has a work-alike formula, readily available, and some (like Rodinal) can be made with chemicals much cheaper than anything sold for photographic purposes.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

Ultimate dumb question time-

If I want to develop a film in dilution H, but there's no time given, I just double the dilution b time...?

 

[DMJ]

If you are using Tri-X make sure you read the notes about developing times in http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/ :

I quote -- "Note about Kodak Tri-X Pan and Plus-X Pan: Kodak's published time for the new 400TX film in dilution B is 3 3/4 minutes at 68 F. That is too short to be practical, and I think they have made a serious mistake; it looks to me like the time for dilution A. I think they used the wrong dilution in their testing for both 400TX and 125PX.
Numerous photographers tell me that the correct time for 400TX is only a few percent shorter than for the old TX. Even Kodak told me the same thing – though they insist that they didn't mix up the dilutions.
However, it's generally agreed that Kodak's published time of 7.5 minutes for TX in dilution B was a bit long. Most photographers recommend about 6 to 7 minutes.
I want to thank Dick Dickerson and Silvia Zawadzki (retired from Kodak, part of the team that invented Xtol) for correspondence about this. They, too, think the wrong dilution was used in Kodak's tests. It will be interesting to see if the published time changes in future Kodak publications.

After further thought, I suspect that there really isn't much difference between 3.5 minutes and 5 minutes. The reason? This is almost entirely within the induction time (the time taken to start development). Results with development times this short are notoriously irreproducible and I recommend higher dilutions." -- end of quote--.

Ultimate dumb question time-

If I want to develop a film in dilution H, but there's no time given, I just double the dilution b time...?

Yes, dilution H (unofficial) is 1:62. Also, do use a minimum of 6ml of syrup per roll as Kodak recommends.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

If you are using Tri-X make sure you read the notes about developing times in http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/ :

I quote -- "Note about Kodak Tri-X Pan and Plus-X Pan: Kodak's published time for the new 400TX film in dilution B is 3 3/4 minutes at 68 F. That is too short to be practical, and I think they have made a serious mistake; it looks to me like the time for dilution A. I think they used the wrong dilution in their testing for both 400TX and 125PX.
Numerous photographers tell me that the correct time for 400TX is only a few percent shorter than for the old TX. Even Kodak told me the same thing – though they insist that they didn't mix up the dilutions.
However, it's generally agreed that Kodak's published time of 7.5 minutes for TX in dilution B was a bit long. Most photographers recommend about 6 to 7 minutes.
I want to thank Dick Dickerson and Silvia Zawadzki (retired from Kodak, part of the team that invented Xtol) for correspondence about this. They, too, think the wrong dilution was used in Kodak's tests. It will be interesting to see if the published time changes in future Kodak publications.

After further thought, I suspect that there really isn't much difference between 3.5 minutes and 5 minutes. The reason? This is almost entirely within the induction time (the time taken to start development). Results with development times this short are notoriously irreproducible and I recommend higher dilutions." -- end of quote--.



Yes, dilution H (unofficial) is 1:62. Also, do use a minimum of 6ml of syrup per roll as Kodak recommends.

yes, I've seen the information on Tri X. that's one I've yet to develop in hc110, and I'll probably do some tests at some point.
and per an above recommendation, the few Dil. Hs I've done and will do are going to be with a 600ml tank.

 

[MattKing]

Yes, dilution H (unofficial) is 1:62

Actually, dilution H is 1 + 63 or, expressed another way, 1 part concentrate plus 63 parts water or, expressed yet another way, one part concentrate in a total volume of 64 parts.
It's a US volumetric measurement thing - one US ounce of concentrate diluted to two US quarts in total.
I think the reason that dilution H has always been unofficial is that it is very dilute, and it is really easy to end up with too little total developer in a tank. But yes, the general recommendation of a starting point for development time is twice the dilution B time.

 

[Louis Nargi]

watch your agitation HC110 is a strong developer and if your agitation is to aggressive your negative can come out to dark I know

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

so I just ran my film in dilution h using double the dilution b time, and it worked. I did it to try and emulate d761:1. if anyone's wondering, I used eastman double x film, and it's the first roll of the stuff I've tried.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

second, I really need some suggestions on alternate containers to store the developer

otherwise, the chemistry itself is still working very well.