Lab Looking to let customers specify chemistry, what should we offer?

[greg zinselmeier]

I would suggest a fine grain ( solvent/dissolving) and \a high accutance . you pick

 

[Rolfe Tessem]

The only must have would be replenished Xtol I would think...

Rolfe

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

If you're offering a boutique development service, then any "replenished" product would be pointless as you wouldn't do enough volume of it to make it worthwhile or effective. I'd go practice on a bunch of your own film with Pyrocat HD or some similar pyro formula so you can have ONE alternative that is sufficiently different from your standard b/w process. As others have noted, pyro is the one "exotic" developer that more people would have heard of, and that they might not be willing to try themselves at home out of fear from its reputation. The other way to approach it would be to offer boutique developing, but the customer supplies the chemistry AND specific development regime instructions. If both are not provided, you won't run their film. But that would have to be a VERY expensive offering.

 

[removed account4]

The first thing I would say , is how many here would be able to tell the developed difference (of a typical film like FP4 ) between HC110, rodinal, pyro , d 76/ID11 , xtoll .

My guess would be 1% ... Keep your offerings very simple.

+1

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

If you're offering a boutique development service, then any "replenished" product would be pointless as you wouldn't do enough volume of it to make it worthwhile or effective. I'd go practice on a bunch of your own film with Pyrocat HD or some similar pyro formula so you can have ONE alternative that is sufficiently different from your standard b/w process. As others have noted, pyro is the one "exotic" developer that more people would have heard of, and that they might not be willing to try themselves at home out of fear from its reputation. The other way to approach it would be to offer boutique developing, but the customer supplies the chemistry AND specific development regime instructions. If both are not provided, you won't run their film. But that would have to be a VERY expensive offering.

I agree 99% with this. But Xtol does not require very high volume when replenished. In fact, if no film is run for weeks, just replenish one film's worth every week to keep the working solution strong. My past with replenished included a period of several months of doing no film developing at all, I think it was six or seven months. The working solution and stock Xtol replenisher sat idle for that entire time, and all I did was to replenish twice (one day apart) for 1 roll without developing (80ml for me), and the developer was back to normal action. Now, I wouldn't recommend doing this, but it kind of illustrates just how robust the developer is in terms of keeping properties and developer activity.

 

[Ian Grant]

What sizes of film will you offer development for?
I'm an advocate of using developer in a replenishment regime. In particular, X-Tol.

Totally agree, back in the early 1980's we used to do all the B&W processing for a local pro Lab and everything went though the same replenished deep tahk system 35mm through to 10x8. Now I'd stick to Xtol I wouldn't offer an alternative except to select clients and then it would most likely be a staing developer like Pyrocat HD or PMK.

The first thing I would say , is how many here would be able to tell the developed difference (of a typical film like FP4 ) between HC110, rodinal, pyro , d 76/ID11 , xtoll .

My guess would be 1% ... Keep your offerings very simple.

I agree Bob it needs to be simple only that way can you ensure consistent high quality result.

Ian

 

[Jeff Bradford]

ECN2 as an option would be handy. The chemistry is not prohibitively expensive if you are going to use it all, but it only comes in forklift-sized quantities from Eastman.