Interesting use of fixer in film development

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

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]

Welcome to APUG Photorio

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

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Really bad idea!

 

[pentaxuser]

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]

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]

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

pentaxuser

 

[MattKing]

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]

Welcome to APUG Photorio

Thanks.

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]

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

 

[Gerald C Koch]

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]

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]

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

 

[Craig75]

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

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

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]

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]

Would anything good come of adding beer with developer? :

 

[faberryman]

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]

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]

Would anything good come of adding beer with developer? :

Depends on which one you drink first!

 

[removed account4]

Would anything good come of adding beer with developer? :

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

 

[removed account4]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.