Ilfosol3, are we happy?

[Voyager]

I'm not. I appreciate whatever improvement has been made to storage time, but I do not appreciate that the development time for FP4 at box speed has changed, and there is no dev time listed on the bottle or the tech sheet for 1:9 at 68 def F. It is difficult enough for me to maintain correct 68 deg temperatures for three chemicals and a wash, but to hold three at 68 and one at 75 is more fussing than I will put up with. However, I'm thinking that if dev time is 4 mins at 75, wouldn't 4 1/2 at 68 be essentially the same? And if so, why wouldn't Ilford say so? Two months ago I emailed Ilford (twice) about this from their own site, and did not receive an answer. I am all-Ilford (film and chemicals), and I don't want to use another brand, and prefer not to use DD-X, since FP4 is what Ilfosol is all about, and since I treat every exposure like it's an Ansel, I don't want to be experimenting. Don't mean to be testy, but I don't like Ilford messing with my established process. Anyone out there developing at 68 deg?

 

[pentaxuser]

Can't explain the omission at 20c for FP4 but I'd only worry about the accuracy of developer temp and if you need to develop some FP4+ right now I'd go with the 24c temp times. Alternatively you could use the dev time correction table that Ilford provided to get the 20c time.

Looks as if the table would suggest 6 mins at 20c if working backwards from 4 mins at 24c is mathematically valid but the 10% increase per minute suggests 5 mins 36 secs. This is a difference of 24 secs which over a time as short as 5-6 mins would not be negligible but still isn't that much.

Not sure what formula you've used to get to 4.5 mins at 20c but on the above basis 30 secs more for a 4 degree(6 degree F) drop seems to be very little as it's only about 12%.

If there is no-one with experience of FP4+ and Ilfosol 3, and you don't want to "take risks" I'd still go with the 24c degree time. All of this assumes that other APUGers times are right for you which they may or may not be.

Best of luck

pentaxuser

 

[rpsawin]

Vincent,

Start here:

http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.html

Best regards,

Bob

 

[bsdunek]

I don't understand all of your remarks. Whatever temperature you choose, all steps of the process should be done at that temperature. See Ilfords instructions: http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/2008422946292613.pdf
They say all steps should be at the same temperature +5C/9F. On page 4 there are charts that show how to modify the times for other temperatures, 14-24C/56-76F. They do show only ISO 100 using the 1+9 dilution, but we know you could boost that a little. The Massive Development Chart shows the same times for ISO 125 (thanks rpsawin). Really, the difference between 100 & 125 is insignificant. A little experimenting would answer your question.
All this said, I have not used Ilfosol 3, only Ilfosol S, which I like. Guess I'll have to try the 3 version soon.