Instant Mytol Recipe

aconbere · Jul 19, 2025

This sounds dumb, but I’ve been struggling to find an authoritative recipe for instant mytol online.

There’s this post from Jordan here: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/instant-mytol.23969/ But for me the quoted source is cut off and the recipe is obscured.

Hoping on of y’all can help me out

retina_restoration · Jul 19, 2025

This is the recipe I use:

Start with 750 ml water
60 g sodium sulfite
4 g sodium metaborate
13 g sodium ascorbate
0.15 g phenidone
3 g sodium metabisulfite
Water to 1000 ml

aconbere · Jul 19, 2025

retina_restoration said:
This is the recipe I use:

Start with 750 ml water
60 g sodium sulfite
4 g sodium metaborate
13 g sodium ascorbate
0.15 g phenidone
3 g sodium metabisulfite
Water to 1000 ml

I’m confused so bear with me. But this looks like regular Mytol to me. My understanding was that what made instant mytol instant was the replacement sodium merabisulfite with potasium bromide, and sodium ascorbate with ascetic acid.

But again… so confused 🫣

bluechromis · Jul 20, 2025

Jordan also formulated a long-lasting non-aqueous part A version of Instant Mytol:

Start with 13.4 ml of hot triethanolamine
25 ml hot propylene glycol
11.5 g ascorbic acid
0.15 phenidone

Stir until all solids have dissolved. (It may require 1-2 ml. of water)
Dilute with hot propylene glycol to a final volume of 50 ml.
The stock solution should have a good shelf life if kept in airtight containers.

Working solution:
For use, dilute 1+19 with water containing 60 g/L of sodium sulfate. The resulting solution matches the activity of stock Xtol. To create something like Xtol 1+!, dilute 1+39 with water containing 30 g/L of sodium sulfate.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jul 20, 2025

aconbere said:
This sounds dumb, but I’ve been struggling to find an authoritative recipe for instant mytol online.

There’s this post from Jordan here: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/instant-mytol.23969/ But for me the quoted source is cut off and the recipe is obscured.

Hoping on of y’all can help me out

Photosensitive

Black-and-white photography formulas, tips and tricks, and curiosities

photosensitive.ca

aconbere · Jul 20, 2025

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:
Photosensitive

Black-and-white photography formulas, tips and tricks, and curiosities

photosensitive.ca

View attachment 403497

Imagine me slapping my forehead. I gave up when the original links were dead but didn’t think to try from the correct domain.

Thanks!

koraks · Jul 20, 2025

Borax	1.4
Sodium sulfite	60
Ascorbic acid	11.5
Sodium carbonate monohydrate	5.64
Phenidone	0.15

I've always used this. I think I started with a mytol recipe I found somewhere, then replaced ascorbate with ascorbic acid and added carbonate to make up for that difference. I can't find the original source anymore. My notes say that this should be adjusted to pH8.20, which it may or may not hit right away when mixing. I admit that I usually don't do that and just use it as is.

aconbere said:
ascetic acid

This must be an acid that lives in a recycled cardboard box instead of a luxury plastic tub, let alone a glass jar!
Sorry about the joke.

Don_ih · Jul 20, 2025

I use the recipe @koraks provided - which makes sense, I got it from him. Works very well. What I do is a direct mix of either 250 or 500 ml of 1:1 diluted mytol, calculated from that recipe, and I've never checked the Ph. Requires a good scale. I keep a solution of phenidone in glycol.

koraks · Jul 20, 2025

Don_ih said:
I use the recipe @koraks provided - which makes sense, I got it from him. Works very well. What I do is a direct mix of either 250 or 500 ml of 1:1 diluted mytol, calculated from that recipe, and I've never checked the Ph. Requires a good scale. I keep a solution of phenidone in glycol.

Yup, same here; I use it either 1:0 or 1:1 and mix it directly into the 'dilution' required. I keep a bottle of 1% phenidone in glycol at hand for easy measurement.

retina_restoration · Jul 20, 2025

aconbere said:
I’m confused so bear with me. But this looks like regular Mytol to me. My understanding was that what made instant mytol instant was the replacement sodium merabisulfite with potasium bromide, and sodium ascorbate with ascetic acid.

But again… so confused 🫣

Sorry, I quoted the regular Mytol recipe, which is not what you wanted. My mistake.

The main reason I have avoided using “instant” Mytol is because there are multiple slightly different recipes for it on the internet: it seems few agree on the ingredients and amounts. Since I already have the metabisulfite (and ascorbate) in my arsenal, I stick with regular Mytol.

koraks said:
I keep a bottle of 1% phenidone in glycol at hand for easy measurement.

I assume you’re talking about propylene glycol, yes?

Andrew O'Neill · Jul 20, 2025

This is the Instant Mytol recipe that I have copied and pasted in a document from a few years ago. I've yet to try it, but will be soon, as my stock of XTol is down to one, 5L package. Once I'm out, then I'll start playing around with regular and instant Mytol...
@koraks how much of the phenidone/glycol solution to you add? Is it added to the stock, or working solution? Thanks!

Stock solution in water:
Start with 750 ml distilled water
60 g sodium sulfite (anhydrous)
11.5 g ascorbic acid
0.15 g phenidone (pre-dissolved in alcohol to aid dissolution)
13.4 ml triethanolamine or 7 g sodium metaborate
Water to 1 L
Working solution: Use as you would use XTOL (diluted 1+1, usually).

OR:

Stock solution in propylene glycol / triethanolamine:
Start with 13.4 ml hot triethanolamine
25 ml hot propylene glycol
11.5 g ascorbic acid
0.15 g phenidone
Dilute with hot propylene glycol to a final volume of 50 ml.

Working solution: The stock solution should keep indefinitely. For use, dilute 1+19 with water containing 60 g/L sodium sulfite — the resulting solution matches the activity of stock XTOL. To create something like XTOL 1+1, dilute 1+39 with water containing 30 g/L sodium sulfite.

aconbere · Jul 20, 2025

koraks said:
This must be an acid that lives in a recycled cardboard box instead of a luxury plastic tub, let alone a glass jar!
Sorry about the joke.

aconbere · Jul 20, 2025

retina_restoration said:
Sorry, I quoted the regular Mytol recipe, which is not what you wanted. My mistake.

No worries! Appreciate the help regardless.

koraks · Jul 20, 2025

Andrew O'Neill said:
@koraks how much of the phenidone/glycol solution to you add? Is it added to the stock, or working solution? Thanks!

I always mix this recipe working strength, ready to go right before I use it one shot. I use a 1% phenidone solution, so if I'm mixing e.g. 500ml and my recipe calls for 0.075g phenidone, I use 7.5ml of 1% phenidone solution. I generally use pipettes to measure it; the ones I use are 3ml, so I'd probably do 3x2.5ml in that case.
I also have a 5% phenidone solution at hand for recipes that require more of it (e.g. print developer which I do mix as a concentrated stock). So I could in this case also opt for the 5% bottle and use 1.5ml of that. Really depends on whichever drops into my hand first, I guess.

I've never tried the concentrate that you posted, but that's an interesting idea. Does it keep well?

aconbere · Jul 20, 2025

I put in an order for so many chemicals. Will report back

Don_ih · Jul 20, 2025

You will find you can never have too many chemicals. You'll always find a recipe that calls for something you just don't have.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jul 20, 2025

aconbere said:
I put in an order for so many chemicals. Will report back

In case you didn't know already, @relistan's PC-512 Borax uses fewer ingredients than Instant Mytol and is gaining a solid reputation as a XTol-like developer. Merits consideration.

aconbere · Jul 21, 2025

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:
In case you didn't know already, @relistan's PC-512 Borax uses fewer ingredients than Instant Mytol and is gaining a solid reputation as a XTol-like developer. Merits consideration.

I didnt know! But now I do. I have all the ingredients for both so I’ll probably give it ago.

I’m also familiar with Mocon (which is mentioned in the above thread) but I’m struggling with a source for Dimezone S

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jul 21, 2025

aconbere said:
I’m also familiar with Mocon (which is mentioned in the above thread) but I’m struggling with a source for Dimezone S

@albada's Mocon should work fine with Phenidone as a instant XTOL substitute if you avoid using Glycol. If I understood correctly, it is the combination of Phenidone and Glycol that increased fog (relative to Dimezone) in his tests. Glycol is needed only to make a long lasting concentrate. Mark can perhaps throw more light on this point.

relistan · Jul 21, 2025

aconbere said:
I didnt know! But now I do. I have all the ingredients for both so I’ll probably give it ago.

I’m also familiar with Mocon (which is mentioned in the above thread) but I’m struggling with a source for Dimezone S

Thanks @Raghu Kuvempunagar for the mention. @aconbere There are also starting times for a number of films here for PC-512 Borax: https://www.photrio.com/forum/resources/pc-512-borax-development-starting-times.462/

albada · Jul 21, 2025

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:
@albada's Mocon should work fine with Phenidone as a instant XTOL substitute if you avoid using Glycol. If I understood correctly, it is the combination of Phenidone and Glycol that increased fog (relative to Dimezone) in his tests. Glycol is needed only to make a long lasting concentrate. Mark can perhaps throw more light on this point.

That's correct. Mocon can be mixed directly into water, without glycol, eliminating the fog problem. Also, Mocon can use either Phenidone or Dimezone S. The only important difference between Mocon and PC-512 Borax is that Mocon contains sodium sulfite, which improves grain.

Mark

relistan · Jul 21, 2025

albada said:
That's correct. Mocon can be mixed directly into water, without glycol, eliminating the fog problem. Also, Mocon can use either Phenidone or Dimezone S. The only important difference between Mocon and PC-512 Borax is that Mocon contains sodium sulfite, which improves grain.

Mark

Mocon is good. I just dispute the "only important difference" characterization. You'll find that the ratio of developing agents makes a noticeable difference. I also suggest that you will not notice much from the presence of sulfite with regard to grain. The small amount of added graininess is in trade for a slightly sharper result.

aconbere · Jul 21, 2025

albada said:
That's correct. Mocon can be mixed directly into water, without glycol, eliminating the fog problem. Also, Mocon can use either Phenidone or Dimezone S. The only important difference between Mocon and PC-512 Borax is that Mocon contains sodium sulfite, which improves grain.

Mark

I see, would you then mix the phenidone with something like IPA to aid in measurement?

Don_ih · Jul 21, 2025

aconbere said:
mix the phenidone with something like IPA to aid in measurement

I'd avoid alcohol. I tried phenidone in 99% pure isopropyl alcohol and it went dead after a not-very-long time (maybe a month).

pentaxuser · Jul 21, 2025

Don_ih said:
You will find you can never have too many chemicals. You'll always find a recipe that calls for something you just don't have.

Didn't Guy say this as well when under the Parliament building on bonfire night in 1605

pentaxuser

PS I agree with your sentiments on alcohol as well, Don, but I never seem to be able to avoid it

Instant Mytol Recipe

aconbere

retina_restoration

aconbere

bluechromis

Raghu Kuvempunagar

Photosensitive

aconbere

Photosensitive

koraks

Moderator

Don_ih

koraks

Moderator

retina_restoration

Andrew O'Neill

Moderator

aconbere

aconbere

koraks

Moderator

aconbere

Don_ih

Raghu Kuvempunagar

aconbere

Raghu Kuvempunagar

relistan

albada

relistan

aconbere

Don_ih

pentaxuser

Instant Mytol Recipe

Moderator

Moderator

Moderator

Moderator

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency