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Monobath photo and paper developer

Pythero

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Hello,

Since I'm interested into developing analog b&w film and I also want to develop my own images into the darkroom,
I was wondering if I could use my cinestill df96 developer to develop the photo paper?
Will it work out for black/white images?

Greets,
P
 
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Pythero

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The cinestill df96 developer is a monobath developer that I use to develop 35mm fomapan 100 film. It works pretty good for this.
 

Donald Qualls

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You'd have to test Df96 for its effectiveness on paper. Paper developers are usually stronger and faster working than film developers, while paper fixer is generally more dilute than film fixer -- this leads me to expect you'll find your paper underdeveloped by the time the fixer component of the monobath has done its work.

That said, it ought to be possible to make a monobath for enlarging papers -- but I wouldn't expect Df96 to be it.
 
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Pythero

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Alright, thx for the quick reply!
 

koraks

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Trying to get df96 to work with paper is unnecessarily complicated; overall a waste of time and money. Just get some paper developer and fixer. You're in Belgium; this stuff is very easy to get where you live from many outlets (mostly online, also a few physical stores).
 

RogerHyam

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I'm just starting to build my 2nd Street Box Camera (a.k.a. Afghan Box camera). In that application a monobath paper developer would be useful but I've not heard of anyone doing it so I guess the downsides out way the upsides. I've never thought monobath for film was worth the effort. Two bottles in the bath room is hardly more complex than one bottle.
 

Donald Qualls

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Actually, an Afghan Box Camera would be the one place a monobath would make sense for paper developer. You might be able to get there just by mixing the right amount of sodium thiosulfate into Dektol 1+2 working solution.
 

removed account4

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are you planning on making a contact print of your negative or rephotograph it ?
 

halfaman

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As far as i know they used always two baths on camera: one super strong and fast developer (a sort of undiluted Dektol) followed by a standard fixer. Then they could use outside the camera an optional hypo cleaning (just for the final copy) and a quick rinse in water. Each person tailored the formulas for their specific conditions (paper, equipment, skin tones, lightning, etc).
 

koraks

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jnantz said:
are you planning on making a contact print of your negative or rephotograph it ?
Click to expand...
Which reminds me, a couple of years ago in Rome I came across a guy who was doing this for a couple of euro's per photo. He made a 5x7" paper negative, developed it (using the camera as a dark box), then mounted it on a stand in front of the lens and rephotographed it. It worked surprisingly well. Nice guy, too. We exchanged emails for a couple of weeks afterwards. He was originally from Serbia I think. At least that's what is last name implied.
 
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