Interesting use of fixer in film development

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jan 23, 2018

I remember reading here or in another forum one photographer reporting his experiments where he used fixer with developer for handling high contrast film. He had presented some data along with his method. Unfortunately I'm unable to find the particular discussion thread. I searched this forum using several keywords but couldn’t reach that thread. Can you help me? Thanks in advance.

Sirius Glass · Jan 23, 2018

Welcome to ~~APUG~~ Photorio

That would be a bad move. Fixer will kill the developer.

Gerald C Koch · Jan 23, 2018

Really bad idea!

pentaxuser · Jan 23, 2018

I think that OP may be referring to a monobath as a means of developing which he thinks may have the added advantage of dealing with high contrast situation.

pentaxuser

Cloudy 8 · Jan 23, 2018

Normal contrast negatives from document film (ADOX CMS 20 II) by adding tiny amounts of fixer into Rodinal:
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...experience-stories.145118/page-2#post-2029134

pentaxuser · Jan 23, 2018

So we swing from it being a bad idea to a link which says it works! How do we reconcile this difference?

pentaxuser

MattKing · Jan 23, 2018

You can contaminate developer with fixer.
You can also modify developer with tiny amounts of fixer.
And you can in some circumstances actually make fixer and developer work together in a monobath - but it works differently with different films and different developers - i.e. it is really quite tricky.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jan 23, 2018

Sirius Glass said:
Welcome to ~~APUG~~ Photorio

Thanks.

Cloudy 8 said:
Normal contrast negatives from document film (ADOX CMS 20 II) by adding tiny amounts of fixer into Rodinal:
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...experience-stories.145118/page-2#post-2029134

This is exactly the thread I was looking for! Thanks.

P.S. Modified the title of the thread as I felt the earlier one was somewhat confusing.

Mainecoonmaniac · Jan 25, 2018

Aren't monobath developers a mix of film developer and fix?

Gerald C Koch · Jan 25, 2018

MattKing said:
You can contaminate developer with fixer.
You can also modify developer with tiny amounts of fixer.
And you can in some circumstances actually make fixer and developer work together in a monobath - but it works differently with different films and different developers - i.e. it is really quite tricky.

Grant Haist who as an engineer for Kodak did extensive research on monobaths and wrote The Monobath Manual eventually came to the conclusion that they were not worth the effort. They offer no advantage and are more expensive than conventional developers.

Unless precautions are taken addition of fixer can lead to high levels of fog.

removed account4 · Jan 25, 2018

Mainecoonmaniac said:
Aren't monobath developers a mix of film developer and fix?

yes they are
and some reversal develoeprs use fixer in them as well ...
maybe not a whole lot, but some is in there ..

faberryman · Jan 25, 2018

Here we go again. Doing something differently for the sake of doing something differently.

Craig75 · Jan 25, 2018

why? what's your technique for developing adox cms20 if you dont want to spend $2 a roll on their developer?

Mainecoonmaniac · Jan 25, 2018

faberryman said:
Here we go again. Doing something differently for the sake of doing something differently.

What's old is new again. But to be fair, a monobath system of development worked well for Polaroid.

faberryman · Jan 25, 2018

Mainecoonmaniac said:
What's old is new again. But to be fair, a monobath system of development worked well for Polaroid.

Only this isn't a monobath system.

Michael Firstlight · Jan 25, 2018

Would anything good come of adding beer with developer? :

faberryman · Jan 25, 2018

Craig75 said:
why? what's your technique for developing adox cms20 if you dont want to spend $2 a roll on their developer?

So it is about saving money?

Craig75 · Jan 26, 2018

faberryman said:
So it is about saving money?

For some its the challenge of making their own developer for this film, others dont want to spend $2-3 a roll on adox's developer, and for others adox's developer wont be available in their region

Nodda Duma · Jan 26, 2018

Michael Firstlight said:
Would anything good come of adding beer with developer? :

Depends on which one you drink first!

removed account4 · Jan 26, 2018

Michael Firstlight said:
Would anything good come of adding beer with developer? :

yes !
there is someone here on photrio who makes developer out of beer

removed account4 · Jan 26, 2018

monobaths have been used for a long time, not really anything new
most recently with new55
http://www.new55.net/2016/08/12/the-reel-truth-about-monobaths-part-i-35mm/
even talked about here on photrio
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/monobath-developer.135237/#post-1767398
written about and formulated by haist ( formula posted by gerald )
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/monobath-developer.135237/#post-1766573
crawley and keeland too
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/monobath-developers.10935/#post-146858

not sure what the anti monobath backlash is about ..
YMMV

Gerald C Koch · Jan 26, 2018

Mainecoonmaniac said:
What's old is new again. But to be fair, a monobath system of development worked well for Polaroid.

The monobath used by Polaroid was designed for a particular film and was not a general purpose one. Therefore the film and monobath could be designed for one another. For Haist to come up with a general purpose monobath he had to design one that could be adjusted by varying the speeds of the two reactions development and fixation. This was done by addjusting the pH. Speccial purpose monobaths are still used extensively. For example dental X-rays where tine is at a premium.

Bob Carnie · Jan 26, 2018

Michael Firstlight said:
Would anything good come of adding beer with developer? :

I tried it , found out I preferred drinking the beer rather than wasting it on film

John Wiegerink · Jan 27, 2018

Michael Firstlight said:
Would anything good come of adding beer with developer? :

Yes, you would have very happy film and as a result, very happy pictures as well. Just don't overdo it! JohnW

juan · Jan 27, 2018

I have and have read Haist’s book. I didn’t see how a mono bath would be worth the trouble. Getting ordinary development right is hard enough with so many variables in the home environment.

Interesting use of fixer in film development

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