Ilfosol 3 and HP5+

Lachlan Young · Oct 14, 2020

Andrew O'Neill said:
Ilfonal! I like it! Maybe I should see if it can stand develop like Rodinal...

It'll probably do a better job at high dilution, long agitation interval processing procedures than Rodinal - not least because it's actually got decent buffer capacity, so it doesn't keel over after 20-30 mins. The shadow speed may be less than that of Rodinal at normal contrast ranges for silver printing - Ilford suggests about a 1 stop under box speed rating when aiming for a normal 0.62 G-Bar, and box speed at 0.8+. If you don't need the speed & contact print, there's little to touch the flexibility of PQ Universal in contrast control etc. Produces a pretty decent straight line sensitometric curve too.

Andrew O'Neill · Oct 14, 2020

Lachlan Young said:
It'll probably do a better job at high dilution, long agitation interval processing procedures than Rodinal - not least because it's actually got decent buffer capacity, so it doesn't keel over after 20-30 mins. The shadow speed may be less than that of Rodinal at normal contrast ranges for silver printing - Ilford suggests about a 1 stop under box speed rating when aiming for a normal 0.62 G-Bar, and box speed at 0.8+. If you don't need the speed & contact print, there's little to touch the flexibility of PQ Universal in contrast control etc. Produces a pretty decent straight line sensitometric curve too.

Thanks Lachlan. I'll give PQ a shot...for me that is. Not the students!

Lachlan Young · Oct 14, 2020

Andrew O'Neill said:
Thanks Lachlan. I'll give PQ a shot...for me that is. Not the students!

Good luck with it - I recall that someone on here (Vaughn?) uses PQ Universal for making negs for carbon transfer etc.

Andrew O'Neill · Oct 14, 2020

Lachlan Young said:
Good luck with it - I recall that someone on here (Vaughn?) uses PQ Universal for making negs for carbon transfer etc.

That's good to know. I always had to mix up some DK-50 when I wanted HP5 to work for carbon transfer.

NB23 · Oct 14, 2020

Andrew O'Neill said:
Ilford MG is about 5 dollars cheaper per litre of stock than Blazinal (our Rodinal here in Canada). From what I can see, there is no loss in quality. Also please keep in mind that this is for high school students who wouldn't know quality if it hit them in the face... That said, I wouldn't hesitate to use it for my own, personal work.

For sure!

foc · Oct 15, 2020

Andrew O'Neill said:
Thanks Lachlan. I'll give PQ a shot...for me that is.

Can I ask a favour, please?
When you get a chance, will you post, at your convenience, some of your PQ universal results?

Andrew O'Neill · Oct 15, 2020

foc said:
Can I ask a favour, please?
When you get a chance, will you post, at your convenience, some of your PQ universal results?

Sure!

foc · Oct 19, 2020

Just to add to the greatness of Ilfosol 3.
Today I had to develop 2 35mm films at home. I had taken all my B&W equipment and chemicals from my shop when I closed down in May this year.
I had Ilfosol 3 decanted into 150 ml glass bottles from when I last processed film commercially in early March just before the Covid lockdown.
One bottle was half full ( for the last 7 months) and when I tested it it was perfect, no discolouring and worked as fresh at 1+14.
Normally I never had Ilfosol 3 sitting around that long as I was always busy with B&W developing.
I was impressed with the keeping power of half bottle full of Ilfosol 3.
BTW I always exhaled through a straw into half-full bottles and have done so for the last 40 odd years.

Andrew O'Neill · Oct 19, 2020

foc said:
Just to add to the greatness of Ilfosol 3.
Today I had to develop 2 35mm films at home. I had taken all my B&W equipment and chemicals from my shop when I closed down in May this year.
I had Ilfosol 3 decanted into 150 ml glass bottles from when I last processed film commercially in early March just before the Covid lockdown.
One bottle was half full ( for the last 7 months) and when I tested it it was perfect, no discolouring and worked as fresh at 1+14.
Normally I never had Ilfosol 3 sitting around that long as I was always busy with B&W developing.
I was impressed with the keeping power of half bottle full of Ilfosol 3.
BTW I always exhaled through a straw into half-full bottles and have done so for the last 40 odd years.

Exchanged through a straw into the developer?? For the carbon dioxide?

grat · Oct 19, 2020

foc said:
One bottle was half full ( for the last 7 months) and when I tested it it was perfect, no discolouring and worked as fresh at 1+14.

Interesting-- I had a bottle of concentrate that I had half used in May, and then "things happened", and I never went back to the bottle until this week. It resembles flat coca-cola. I'm guessing it's not useful as a developer any longer.

The replacement bottle was split into 100ml brown bottles per someone else's comments. Hopefully it keeps longer. I'm an amateur at this, but so far, I have yet to screw up a development session using Ilfosol 3.

foc · Oct 20, 2020

Andrew O'Neill said:
Exchanged through a straw into the developer?? For the carbon dioxide?

The way I do it is to breathe in and hold my breath. Then when I feel I need to breathe again, (as most of us do) I exhale through the straw into the air space in the bottle above the developer concentrate, and then quickly put on the bottle cap. It has worked for me for many a year. ( I know there are arguments about how much carbon dioxide is really in there etc........)

I did forget once to do it, around Christmas time, and when I came back from my Christmas break the half-filled glass bottle of developer concentrate has turned yellow. I know it would have worked but I wasn't going to chance customers films for the sake of 75ml of developer concentrate.

Andrew O'Neill · Oct 20, 2020

foc said:
The way I do it is to breathe in and hold my breath. Then when I feel I need to breathe again, (as most of us do) I exhale through the straw into the air space in the bottle above the developer concentrate, and then quickly put on the bottle cap. It has worked for me for many a year. ( I know there are arguments about how much carbon dioxide is really in there etc........)

I did forget once to do it, around Christmas time, and when I came back from my Christmas break the half-filled glass bottle of developer concentrate has turned yellow. I know it would have worked but I wasn't going to chance customers films for the sake of 75ml of developer concentrate.

Are you sure it wasn't from that pint of Guinness you had just before blowing on the straw?

foc · Oct 20, 2020

Andrew O'Neill said:
Are you sure it wasn't from that pint of Guinness you had just before blowing on the straw?

I will definitely have to try that method (although I better not get confused about which bottle is which)

Andrew O'Neill · Oct 20, 2020

foc said:
I will definitely have to try that method (although I better not get confused about which bottle is which)

John Bragg · Nov 27, 2020

Final update on this thread. After a little over 8 months, I just this morning used the last drop of my 500ml bottle which was decanted into 100ml Calpol (Tylenol Junior) bottles. I am very happy to report that it worked exactly as it should and a roll of perfectly developed HP5+ is now drying. This has bolstered my faith in this much under loved developer and I am very confident in my storage regime in these essentially free Winchester brown bottles. The last glass bottle had been opened and half full for 2 months. In brim full bottles it should keep at least a year, but I hope to use it much quicker. So the end of a very useful experiment for me and I hope it will help others.

cowanw · Nov 27, 2020

Thanks for reporting in.

NB23 · Nov 27, 2020

John Bragg said:
This has bolstered my faith in this much under loved developer.

This is a misconception. Ilfosol is a very popular developer among students and amateurs in general. My local store is replenishing its ilfosol stock quite regularly.

It’s just that in forums like ours, you got the same 20-ish dinosaurs (count me in) participating and thus giving the impression that there is nothing much past rodinal... or such.

Also, and maybe this is what you meant, I feel that Ilfosol could and should be regarded as one of the very best developers, equal to XTOL, which it truly is.

Andrew O'Neill · Nov 27, 2020

NB23 said:
This is a misconception. Ilfosol is a very popular developer among students and amateurs in general. My local store is replenishing its ilfosol stock quite regularly.

It’s just that in forums like ours, you got the same 20-ish dinosaurs (count me in) participating and thus giving the impression that there is nothing much past rodinal... or such.

Also, and maybe this is what you meant, I feel that Ilfosol could and should be regarded as one of the very best developers, equal to XTOL, which it truly is.

I like it so much, I keep a bottle in my darkroom.

John Bragg · Nov 27, 2020

NB23 said:
This is a misconception. Ilfosol is a very popular developer among students and amateurs in general. My local store is replenishing its ilfosol stock quite regularly.

It’s just that in forums like ours, you got the same 20-ish dinosaurs (count me in) participating and thus giving the impression that there is nothing much past rodinal... or such.

Also, and maybe this is what you meant, I feel that Ilfosol could and should be regarded as one of the very best developers, equal to XTOL, which it truly is.

Exactly. Both it and Xtol gained a reputation for less than stellar keeping properties. Those that use it and love it know that good old common sense is all that is needed. Don't use brown dev and don't eat yellow snow !

brian steinberger · Nov 27, 2020

This thread has got me intrigued. I’m going to have to order some ilfosol to try out. I’ve been using ID-11 1:1 exclusively for the last ten years and am happy with the results with HP5 but it’s fun to experiment once in a while!

DeletedAcct1 · Nov 27, 2020

Another one unsung developer is Kodak T-Max imho...

MattKing · Nov 27, 2020

Alessandro Serrao said:
Another one unsung developer is Kodak T-Max imho...

I agree, although I wish T-Max RS was still available in small bottles.

DeletedAcct1 · Nov 28, 2020

I've got an Ilford Ilfosol 3 bottle for a year now. When I bought the sealed bottle the liquid inside could swash freely. Now it can't, it seems someone has created vacuum inside, but the bottle is still factory sealed. Why is it happening?

John Bragg · Nov 28, 2020

Alessandro Serrao said:
I've got an Ilford Ilfosol 3 bottle for a year now. When I bought the sealed bottle the liquid inside could swash freely. Now it can't, it seems someone has created vacuum inside, but the bottle is still factory sealed. Why is it happening?

Perhaps any gas in the bottle has become dissolved and created a partial vacuum. At least it shows that the seal integrity has not failed.

John Bragg · Jun 21, 2021

Ilfosol still working well for me. This taken with a Nikon F5 on HP5+ @ ei200

Princess by E.J. Bragg, on Flickr

Ilfosol 3 and HP5+

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