Help processing HR-50

Hello!


I have shot a couple of rolls of Adox HR-50 (with Speed Boost) last week and went to check the data sheet today, before processing... only to find out the only developer that will work at full box speed is HR-DEV from ADOX!

Being in Brazil, it's very hard to buy chemistry. I mean I can't find HR-DEV, ATOMAL or FX-39 here. Maybe I can find some Ilford DD-X.

I have Acufine and HC-110 here. I also have Rodinal and D-76, but these are not recommended.

Have you guys done tests with other developers? Can you recommend anything besides what's in the data sheet?


Regards,
Flavio

Caffenol CL works fine !

fs999 said:

Caffenol CL works fine !

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Interesting, as Caffenol is ascorbate and coffee... in that case, I would rather use XTOL, but it’s not in the recommended developer list either.

I’m think I’m going to test Acufine at 20 seg C for 4-1/2 minutes.

Without having any first hand experience, I suspect Perceptol 1+3 might work quite well. It worked ok for me when I tried it with Rollei Retro 80S. At this dilution, the speed penalty isn't that great and you get a good combination of fine grain and sharpness.

Perceptol has no Hydroquinone, right? It would tame the supposedly high contrast, since it’s a technical film, I guess...

I would mix up some caffenol or my favourite for these kinds of films...including x-ray films... POTA. I have a couple of boxes of 4x5 CMS 20 II, and they're pretty good in mentioned developers... but performed best in a dedicated developer, Adotech IV.

fdonadio said:

Perceptol has no Hydroquinone, right? It would tame the supposedly high contrast, since it’s a technical film, I guess...

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Exactly, it's a metol only, low pH developer. To be more precise, I used Ed Hyman's Perceptol formula, which must be a very close approximation and works very well. It's very easy to mix if you're so inclined.

Anon Ymous said:

I used Ed Hyman's Perceptol formula, which must be a very close approximation and works very well. It's very easy to mix if you're so inclined.

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Yes, I have everything I need to mix pretty much any Metol-Hydroquinone-based formula here. I guess I can easily find the formula by searching the forums...

Strange thing is Adox recommends also Ilford DD-X, which contains Phenidone, which I understand is a Metol alternative... I’m a bit puzzled!

fdonadio said:

Yes, I have everything I need to mix pretty much any Metol-Hydroquinone-based formula here. I guess I can easily find the formula by searching the forums...

Strange thing is Adox recommends also Ilford DD-X, which contains Phenidone, which I understand is a Metol alternative... I’m a bit puzzled!

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Ed Hyman's Perceptol formula:
Sodium Tripolyphosphate 3.5 gms
Metol 5.0 gms
Sodium Sulphite anhyd.100.0 gms
Sodium Chloride 30.0 gms
water to 1 Litre

Andrew O'Neill said:

Ed Hyman's Perceptol formula:
Sodium Tripolyphosphate 3.5 gms
Metol 5.0 gms
Sodium Sulphite anhyd.100.0 gms
Sodium Chloride 30.0 gms
water to 1 Litre

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Yes, that's pretty much it. Sodium tripolyphosphate is there to take care of water hardness, I substituted it with sodium hexametaphosphate and can be omitted if using soft, or deionised water. The pH of the developer I mixed was within the range Ilford mention in their datasheet.

EDIT: Sodium chloride must be non iodised. Most pickling salts are of the plain variety, without any additives, but a look in the ingredients is mandatory.

Anon Ymous said:

Yes, that's pretty much it. Sodium tripolyphosphate is there to take care of water hardness, I substituted it with sodium hexametaphosphate and can be omitted if using soft, or deionised water. The pH of the developer I mixed was within the range Ilford mention in their datasheet.

EDIT: Sodium chloride must be non iodised. Most pickling salts are of the plain variety, without any additives, but a look in the ingredients is mandatory.

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Good information! Thank you.

Thanks, @Andrew O'Neill for the formula

@Anon Ymous, I have analytical grade chemicals. I almost never use household stuff, not even baking soda or vinegar.

I am going to shoot test scenes with some bracketing and develop them in Acufine and this Perceptol formula and see what I get.

I’ll post back when I have my results.

Good news!

I shot some frames of a test scene with objects of several colors against a texturized light background, bracketed from -2 to +3.

Developed in Acufine for 4-1/2 minutes at 20 Celsius, with gentle agitation, as per Acufine’s instructions: 10 seconds continuously, then two inversions every 30 seconds. I used an acetic stop bath and fixed for two minutes with Ron Mowrey’s Superfix, with moderate agitation, as always: 30 seconds initially, then five inversions every 30 seconds. Ilford wash and then Photo-Flo.

Film is almost dry and looks awesome. The signature and frame numbers on the rebate are well developed and even look just a little overdeveloped. Images look very good and looks like Acufine gives full box speed with HR-50. From my experience the “zero” and +1 exposures look best. Both look like they should print easily.

I love how the base is incredibly transparent. It’s also thinner than most films. Also, the anti-halation dyes leave a yellow tint to the developer.

I am thinking about making a contact print or maybe a linear scan of the whole strip. Not sure where to go from here.

Here we go... The four exposures are bracketed -2, -1, 0 and +1. Like I said before, developed with Acufine for 4.5 (or 4 1/2) minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. I have shot a +2 exposure, but it's way too bright.



I can say, for sure, it's overdeveloped. I guess 4 minutes would be better, maybe even 3:45. The exposure at ISO 50 (full box speed) looks too bright and contrasty. The exposure at -1 (ISO 100) looks fair, maybe half a stop too dark and a still a little too contrasty.

The problem, for me, is working with these extremely short development times. Has anyone here tried diluted Acufine? What does it do to grain?


Regards,
Flavio

fdonadio said:

The problem, for me, is working with these extremely short development times. Has anyone here tried diluted Acufine? What does it do to grain?

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A search yielded lots of info on diluted Acufine here on Photrio. Seems dev times can be doubled, which would be much more comfortable and also avoid uneven development.

Re: developer for Adox HR 50, I don't know how easy it is to get bulk chemicals in Brazil, but there is recipe of a developer you could mix at home. The recipe is for FX-37 which Crawley (who formulated FX-39) said is the closest thing to FX-39. http://home.alphalink.com.au/~simgrant/jackspcs/fx37.htm

There was some references in forums to using vender at link below to get chemistry in Brazil, though they may only sell to businesses. But that may be solvable problem.

https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/brazil.html

bluechromis said:

I don't know how easy it is to get bulk chemicals in Brazil, but there is recipe of a developer you could mix at home. The recipe is for FX-37 which Crawley (who formulated FX-39) said is the closest thing to FX-39.

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Thanks for the tip. The only hard to find chemical is phenidone, but I can sure mix that once I get some.

I’m the end, I got a small bottle of HR-DEV through a friend that was coming from the USA (from Freestyle). It gives a lot more highlight detail than Acufine, but contrast is sure lower.

I’m on a trip in Europe again. Maybe I can get some phenidone from Suvatlar and take with me to Brazil.