Hey anyone using DK50?

[Eric Rose]

What's the poop on this developer?

 

[Murray Kelly]

I find it very good with T-grain 400 . Box speed, minimal grain. Compare with FX-37 and see the substitution of metol with phenidone. I think Crawley preferred the metol version.

 

[John Wiegerink]

Mix some up and try it. Very simple to make, has good keeping properties, can be run as replenished and can be diluted to mimic Buetler high acutance developer. So, as you can see it's a very versatile developer. Have I used it? Yes, and with films like Delta 100, Tmy2, FP4+, HP5+ and Ultrafine Xtreme 100 all in 120 film size. If it were the only developer left on the planet I could be very content. JohnW

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I tried this developer in the late 90's (mixed from scratch) with HP5 sheet film. It's a VERY fast acting developer. Even diluting it down to 1+3, I was getting a normal time of...if I recall... 7:30 at 20C in tubes. Probably EI 250....Negatives looked clean with quite a bit of snap. I didn't continue using it as I was getting into pyro... maybe it's time to play around with it again.

 

[Eric Rose]

The reason I ask is I have come into quite a bit of it from a generous Photrio member. I've never used it before.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I found it quite nice for N and N+ development... I would not consider it for N- unless diluted beyond 1+3...which I never tried.

 

[Nodda Duma]

Yes, Eric. Check out some of my recent media postings.

Fast development, good contrast. I wouldn’t use it for 35mm (a bit grainy). Worked awesome for the fine grain of my plates and medium format.

 

[removed account4]

Hi Eric

It was the stable developer at the portrait studio i worked at, and it was used replenished. it gave beautiful negatives. be advised if you use it you might get better results using it as a seasoned developer ( that is what it was in our deep tank, 1/2 tank seasoned the rest new ) the seasoning not sure what the doo dads were that were left behind from the tri x and tri x ortho sheets we'd process but it tamed the developer and gave it great tonality.

Have fun !
J

 

[Nokton48]

I used it for newspaper photography back in the 70s.

DSC05898 by Nokton48, on Flickr

dk-50 replenisher by Nokton48, on Flickr

My stash, from the local camera store, when it closed up.