microphen formulae

[Dr. Magico]

Hey there,
I know everybody seems to already have it but not me. So sorry if It feels like a re-run of an old question
oes anyone have the formulae for microphen?
I am also intersted in your experience mixing it.

I can't find it, and the only link I've got on the forum is outdated.

Thanks in advanced,
Cheers.

 

[Ian Grant]

ID68 is the published formulae


Sodium Sulphite 85gms
Hyroquinone 5 gms
Borax 7gms
Boric Acid 2 gms
Phenidone 0.13 gms
Potassium Bromide 1 gm
Water to I litre

It's a good clean working developer which gives a small increase in effective film speed compared to ID-11/D76. It's very good for uprating film speed in low light levels.

What a change to find someone who can spell

Ian

 

[Dr. Magico]

That was fast thank you Ian.
Sorry you just triggered an other question: why is the commercial package divided in two parts?
I'am just thinking that there might be incompatibility between some ingredients. My deep idea is to mix the stuff dry and add water when needed so i only need to bring scale and cups ones in a while.
In that case what shouldn't mix with what?

 

[Ian Grant]

The chemicals won't keep if mixed and stored dry. Personally I would mix 5 litres at a time, then strore in smaller well sealed bottles. Being a PQ developer it has a much longer shelf life than a similar MQ developer.

Ideally this formulae is used on a replenishment basis, Ilford also published a formulae for ID68 Replenisher I use to use this formulae extensively back in the late 1960's early 70's for all my films but particularly for uprating films like HP5 for theatre & rock concert photographry.

I've always used developers like Microphen (ID68), ID-11, Adox Borax MQ and now X-tol on a replenishment basis, it's far more economic and once seasoned gives the qualities normally found using the same developers diluted to 1:3 - after all these developers were designed for commercial large scale use.

Ian

 

[Gerald Koch]

Ilford has never published the formula for Microphen. Over the years several formulas have been mentioned. Here is one of them.

Distilled water (50°C) ............................ 750 ml
Sodium sulfite (anhy) ............................ 100 g
Hydroquinone ...................................... 5.0 g
Borax (deca) ....................................... 3.0 g
Boric acid ........................................... 3.5 g
Phenidone .......................................... 0.2 g
Potassium bromide ............................... 1.0 g
Distilled water to make ......................... 1.0 l

 

[Dr. Magico]

Great, thanks again, I will try the 5 l at a time.
By the way: ilford delta 100 4''x5'' exposed 100iso, is 10mn, dil:1+1, 20degrees celsius a good starting point?

 

[Ian Grant]

Ilford has never published the formula for Microphen.

True but they did publish ID-68 in various of their own publications and state it was similar to Microphen, also publishing the replenisher fomulae too. It's alway's been widely accepted here in the UK that ID-68 and Microphen were to all intents the same.

The formulae you've listed is extremely similar to one I've seen before and is an early PQ developer derived initially from ID-11/D76. It's incorrectly listed as being similar to Microphen in the Darkroom Cookbook.

I've never seen it published by Ilford, but I have seen a very slight variation in a British Journal of Photography article on the use of Phenidone in developer formulae, 12th Feb 1954, (extract in 1954 BJ Almanac), almost the same as you've listed but with only 1 gm of Borax & 1 gm Boric acid.

We have found some of the missing links between Ilford's evolving a commercial PQ Fine Grain film developer ID-68/Microphen from the then extensively used MQ developer ID-11/D76

Ian

 

[Gerald Koch]

Hi Ian,

I believe that the formula I listed was from the Dignan Newsletter's book on Phenidone. It was suggested as being similar to Microphen. My experience many years ago was that it was a bit slower acting than Microphen.

 

[Ian Grant]

Hi Gerald

Your mention of your source makes sense, he'd have been reading these old articles written by Ilford chemists back in the 50's The same formulae is in the Cookbook.

The article I have in front of me would have been gibberish to me when it was written, I was 5 weeks old However many years later I can read between the lines. The formulae claims to give "characteristics approximating to ID-11"

The one you quote has a small increase in buffering so will be more stable for re-use/replenishment but not significantly different, cutting the solvent, by 15% and tweaking the borak/boric acid ratio seems to give that increase in effective film speed in ID-68/Microphen.

When Agfa Variolux, and a little later Ilford XP-1 were introduced I switched back to an MQ dev, at the time Adox Borax MQ (the German Din test developer) because they offered that slight edge on tonality and fine grain.

Use of a developer film combination is extremely personal in choice. For over 5 years I found Microphen / ID-68 and FP3/4 and HP3/4/5 to be totally suited to my work

Ian