HP5+ and Pyrocat HD: dilution/time/temp/agitation please?

malinmalin · Jan 21, 2008

Hi!

OK, I've spent part of the afternoon looking this and I have my fill!
Got some negs to develop asap but the DDX I have is most surely bad
now (more than one year) however I have some pyrocat so I was
wondering is anyone has some starting point on the dilution and
development time to process HP5+ (120) in Pyrocat? I got some
Rodinal but I'd rather not use it with HP5.

I's amazing that most of the info I found here seems to always
miss some important point: one mentions the time and temp but
not the dilution, others dilution and time but not the temperature.

And I process film in tanks. I'm used to semi-stand and stand
development but I have never used it with HP5+...

Regards!
jf

Bruce Osgood · Jan 21, 2008

Sandy King, who developed Pyrocat in its' various forms, has published an article on the Unblinkingeye web site:

http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/PCat/pcat.html

There is more information here than you might wish to know but it is important you read and comprehend it all.

He does provide a development chart for 5+ and just about all popular films of today.

Eric Rose · Jan 21, 2008

I rate my HP5+ at 200 asa, soup in PyroCat-HD 1:1:100 for 10 minutes. 15 second initial agg and then 10 seconds every 60 thereafter. 20C water temp, water stop and normal fix. Oh ya, 3 minute pre-soak. I use filtered tap water. My darkroom is 8 feet below ground and I face south when processing film. LOL. One more thing, I develop my film while in the nude. Anymore detail than that would get just a little too personal.

Will S · Jan 22, 2008

I do 18' semi-stand, 1:1:100 rated at 200ISO @70f. That's 90" initial agitation then 10" every 3 minutes thereafter.

I'm printing with a condenser enlarger on VC paper.

There are a lot of variables, so you really have to test, but it's a good starting point.

Good luck,

Will

malinmalin · Jan 22, 2008

Will S said:
I do 18' semi-stand, 1:1:100 rated at 200ISO. That's 90" initial agitation then 10" every 3 minutes thereafter.

I'm printing with a condenser enlarger on VC paper.

There are a lot of variables, so you really have to test, but it's a good starting point.

Good luck,

Will

I rated the HP5+ at 200 and on a not-so-important roll had a go with 1:1:200 at 20C,
with first a presoak in plain water for 5mins, water out, dev in, 1 min of continuous agitation,
then 45min with 3 gentle agitations every 15mins thereafter. Neg looks thin but I know it's a bit
hard to assess a pyro stained negative so I'll know for sure when I try to print some frames later tonight.
I print with split-grading on a condenser enlarger with VC paper so I might try your recipe.

Thank you all for your suggestions.
regards,
jf

Trevor Crone · Jan 22, 2008

HP5+/120, ISO 320, Pyrocat-HD dil. 1:1:100, 12 min. @ 21*C, continuous agitation 1st min., 5s agitation every 30s. thereafter.

I use a presoak for about 2min.

Regards,
Trevor.

malinmalin · Jan 24, 2008

Continuing my little experiment, I tried to print a few frames from my test roll of HP5+
developped as I mentionned above. Even though they look a little thin on the light
table, they printed nicely with not much effort of my part. I might use that recipe
with one more agitation cycle while keeping the same total dev time, 45mins.

Last night I tried a small variation of recipe that Will mentionned above, a 5min water
presoak, 1:1:100 pyrocat at 20C and 3 inversions at 17min, 12min, 7min and 2min,
ditch the dev, water stop bath for 1min, and 5min in Ilford alkalyne rapid fixer,
10min wash in running water.

Comparing the 2 sets of negatives on the light table it seems to me that my second
test yielded slightly thinner negatives. They were done with exactly the same light
conditions so maybe I was too gentle with my agitations...

anyways, thanks folks!
jf

Andrew Moxom · Jan 24, 2008

malinmalin, how about rasing your dev temp to 72 def f? That might give you more oomph... Especially for semi stand

malinmalin · Jan 25, 2008

Andrew Moxom said:
malinmalin, how about rasing your dev temp to 72 def f? That might give you more oomph... Especially for semi stand

Andrew, that was my next step

Regards,
jf

blanconegro8rc · Sep 24, 2020

Hi! I have tried pyrocat hd on hp5 1:1:100, semi stand in and it gives me a nice negative to print on Ilford fiber based paper.

blanconegro8rc · Sep 24, 2020

blanconegro8rc said:
Hi! I have tried pyrocat hd on hp5 1:1:100, semi stand in and it gives me a nice negative to print on Ilford fiber based paper.

P. S. On hp5 4x5

john_s · Sep 27, 2020

malinmalin said:
I rated the HP5+ at 200 and on a not-so-important roll had a go with 1:1:200 at 20C,
with first a presoak in plain water for 5mins, water out, dev in, 1 min of continuous agitation,
then 45min with 3 gentle agitations every 15mins thereafter. Neg looks thin but I know it's a bit
hard to assess a pyro stained negative so I'll know for sure when I try to print some frames later tonight.
I print with split-grading on a condenser enlarger with VC paper so I might try your recipe.

Thank you all for your suggestions.
regards,
jf

I'm just wondering why you didn't use the standard dilution 1+1+100 for your first run. Did you have a particular contrast situation to control?

I have only used it at the standard dilution with a bit less frequent agitation (around every 3min) and have always been happy with the negatives that have been easy to print (once I got my film speed right which is half box speed).

HP5+ and Pyrocat HD: dilution/time/temp/agitation please?

Membership Council

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency