My 510-Pyro Adventures Have Begun!

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:

I too faced the same problem with Orwo UN54 - Pyrocat combination. I reported the problem to Filmotec but they didn't acknowledge any flaws in the film based on the batch number. I guess the pinholes were probably due to the use of carbonate as the accelerator. Switching to @mrred's borax-lye concoction solved the problem, in case you want to give it a try. YMMV.

Click to expand...

Using PMK leaves no pinholes for me in the UN 54 but will experiment with the 510 Pyro to see if that leaves it flawed.

Did a bit more experimenting with 510 Pyro. This time I used Fomapan 400 exposed at 250 ISO and I see the differences on pulling film to get the proper details thanks to the advice from several members here. Used my Canon EF SLR with FD 85 f1.8 lens.

I think that 510 pyro latest formula sold in small bottles may sell well.
Like Rodinal and HC-110 [syrup version] it is expected to be long lasting and only needs a syringe from a pharmacy and a graduated plastic jug from a kitchenware shop to mix up.

There is a chapter about the previous 0.25g phenidone version in the Kindle book I have by John Finch "The Art of Black and White Developing". He gives photographs illustrating that the grain is quite a bit finer than with Pyrocat HD. A rather enthusiastic review does not cover the downsides.
It would be interesting to hear later from Andrew how 510 Pyro compares on sharpness with Pyrocat HD, John Finch recons it is sharper, when I tried it I did not think so.

Alan Johnson said:

There is a chapter about the previous 0.25g phenidone version in the Kindle book I have by John Finch "The Art of Black and White Developing". He gives photographs illustrating that the grain is quite a bit finer than with Pyrocat HD. A rather enthusiastic review does not cover the downsides.
It would be interesting to hear later from Andrew how 510 Pyro compares on sharpness with Pyrocat HD, John Finch recons it is sharper, when I tried it I did not think so.

Click to expand...

Wasn't there a big competition between 510 Pyro and Pyrocat HD about 15-20 years ago, and Pyrocat HD came out the winner, which may explain why 510 Pyro more or less disappeared from the scene until Zone Imaging resurrected it?

I think Sandy King did a lot more testing of the Pyrocat series and promoted it more and had more followers, eg on unblinkingeye.com articles and large format forum. Jay DeFehr on 510 Pyro did not follow up comprehensively.
John Finch seems to have been the first to compare the two and more widely circulate his results.

faberryman said:

Wasn't there a big competition between 510 Pyro and Pyrocat HD about 15-20 years ago, and Pyrocat HD came out the winner, which may explain why 510 Pyro more or less disappeared from the scene until Zone Imaging resurrected it?

Click to expand...

Yes, I remember that well. Teams were captained by DeFehr and King. I was firmly on the Pyrocat-HD side. That was an epic battle. I regret not trying DeFehr's developer then. I wish I had. I like it, but Pyrocat-HD has the edge for me, especially when it comes to economy, and edge effects.

Rudiger Hartung resurrected 510-Pyro and produced most of the data on developing time. He also popularised semistand developing with this developer.

Before Zone Imaging got into the production of 510-Pyro, Rudiger used to mix and supply it to many users in Germany and Europe.

Alan Johnson said:

There is a chapter about the previous 0.25g phenidone version in the Kindle book I have by John Finch "The Art of Black and White Developing". He gives photographs illustrating that the grain is quite a bit finer than with Pyrocat HD. A rather enthusiastic review does not cover the downsides.
It would be interesting to hear later from Andrew how 510 Pyro compares on sharpness with Pyrocat HD, John Finch recons it is sharper, when I tried it I did not think so.

Click to expand...

Therein, it seems to me, lies the problem of it ever being possible to state with a degree of getting overall consensus on almost any attribute of a film such as sharpness despite what photographs would seem to reveal

In his "Battle of the Giants" series of videos John Finch concluded that Pyrocat HD won. In fact the final contest excluded 510 as it had lost in a previous round. The tests involved a non-staining developer as well. However John subsequently withdrew one of the videos involving 510 Pyro and I believe he intends to re-do it.

It seems he may have decided that his print comparisons in the 510 Pyro contest were not quite a fair comparison

That is not to say he has changed his mind on his final conclusion about pyrocat HD being the best but I look forward to his re-run involving 510

pentaxuser