High temperature paper development

High temperature paper development is normal in automatic processors, but not very practical in trays.

Now I bought a Nova processor, and it has a heating.

I plan to use it for RC paper, Efke Emax (just for contact sheets), and Multigrade or Adox MCP for the real prints.
The developer will be Moersch ECO 4812 (25 seconds at 34°C).
Stop bath is citric acid (10 seconds?)
The fixer could be Amaloco X89 or an alkaline fixer (time unknown yet).

And here is my question: did you process paper at such high temperatures without an automatic machine processor? Were you happy with the results?

Past about 26-28°C B&W papers tend to pick up base fog, and the emulsion surface dulls due micro/surface reticulation as well.

It can be done but you need to add additional anti-foggants and some form of hardening is also useful. The dulling of the print surface can be reversed by steaming the print before or after drying.

Ian

Ian, thanks, I will start below that critical temperature then.

Interestingly Nova sells its own dev and fix and each carry a chart on the container for their use at much higher temps than Ilford which seems to only mention 20C. Clearly Nova doesn't make its own dev or fix but I have no idea who makes it for them.

Both are good products which I have used and in the Summer the ambient temp in the Nova slots can get as high as 26-27C and the Nova dev seems to behave properly at these temps but I haven't tried it as high as the chart goes( way into the thirties). However Ilford dev and fix also work properly as well at these temps.

However you would assume that if Nova issues a chart showing that both dev and fix work into the thirties then it should be OK. No point showing high temp dev if there are problems as customers then assume that the Nova product is no good and stop buying it so it becomes counter productive.

I can only assume that Nova dev and fix isn't made to the Ilford formula, otherwise Ilford would also mention the range of temps over which its dev and fix can be used

So I wonder what is different about Nova dev and fix and who makes it for Nova?

pentaxuser