My Chemical Confusion!

Hey all,

I'm a new member from London. Currently hooked to my 1980 Hasselblad and documenting my travels with it.

I've decided I'm gonna develop my films at home. Got the changing bag, developing tank, squeegee, thermometer and gloves all ready to go. But the chemicals suggested by the local Calumet are causing a bit of confusion...

I've got the following:

ID11 DEVELOPER 5L - POWDER
HYPAM 1L RAPID FIXER
INDICET STOP BATH 1L

Could you guys give me some tips on how to mix, store and use these? Never worked in a darkroom, but I've shot a test roll of Ilford HP5 400 that's ready to be developed.... when I suss out how to do it!

Thanks!

.
Hi 1983,

Welcome To APUG !
Off to see my Doctor.
I'll catch up with you later.


Ron
.

1983:

Welcome to APUG!

If I were you I'd read through the information on the "Getting Started" section on Ilford's website - in particular the documents behind the link labelled: "Processing a Black & White Film". That should give you some good context, and answer many, if not all of your initial questions.

Then feel free to ask here for any clarification you may require.

Oh, and be sure to have fun!

PS: here is the link: Dead Link Removed

I have had superb results with Kodak XTOL, any stop bath with indicator, any liquid or powdered Hypo.

Why XTOL? See http://www.kodak.com/global/en/prof...wFilmProcessing/selecting.jhtml?pq-path=14053

Steve

Hello 1983 and welcome to APUG. I would get some smaller bottles for storing the chemicals after mixing.

Sirius Glass said:

I have had superb results with Kodak XTOL, any stop bath with indicator, any liquid or powdered Hypo.

Why XTOL? See http://www.kodak.com/global/en/prof...wFilmProcessing/selecting.jhtml?pq-path=14053

Steve

Click to expand...

But Steve, the OP already has ID-11. Let's help him with that first. Then he can get into the various developer wars.

1983, the first thing to do is save your first test roll away safe, take a new roll that hasn't been exposed, and open it in daylight ruining it. This is you're sacrificial roll of film. (You can decide if that has religious overtones for you or not.) But you need to see just what the devil this stuff looks like so when you're fumbling in the dark you have some idea what you're doing.

Get to the point that you can load your sacrificial roll onto the reel in the daylight looking at what you're doing, then get to the point that you can load it in the changing bag.

It's a little like riding a bicycle: seems pretty weird at first, but once you get it you never loose it.

In the meantime, do the suggested readings. There's a lot there. But if you can't load the reel, you can't develop the film, so learn that first.

One more skill that many beginners overlook, and many old farts fail to tell them, is practice pouring water into and out of your developer tank. The first time you do it you may find it isn't as straightforward as you expected. It doesn't run into the little hole like water running down the kitchen sink drain, and when you dump it out it pours on the counter top more than you thought. Or the bottle you thought was great has way too small a hole to pour the chemicals back into. A little water and a 5 minutes pouring water may save you a lot of pandemonium the first time.

Just measure out some water, leave the tank empty, and pour it in and out a few times so you know exactly how it's going to go. The Paterson super system 4 tanks work fabulously in my mind, and the SS Nikor tanks are abysmal. Other folks here have exactly the opposite opinion, and that's OK. But you need to learn to use whichever one you bought, then you can decide if you want to try to other kind.

As for the chemicals, you need to mix the ID-11 into a 5L solution. There should be instructions on the box (and remember to read the getting started on Ilford's site).

Once you have 5L of ID-11 stock it becomes just like your bottle of Rapid Fixer and Stop Bath. You'll have to make working solutions out of them. How much working solution you need depends on what kind of tank you have, specifically how much it takes to cover the film.

What kind of tank do you have? How much does it hold?

Michael

1983 said:

ID11 DEVELOPER 5L - POWDER
HYPAM 1L RAPID FIXER
INDICET STOP BATH 1L

Could you guys give me some tips on how to mix, store and use these? Never worked in a darkroom, but I've shot a test roll of Ilford HP5 400 that's ready to be developed.... when I suss out how to do it!

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Welcome to APUG and... you're in the right spot!

My main tip for the 5L kit is to get yourself a big mixing jar, it really makes a huge difference. Don't make the mistake of trying to mix 5L in a 5L container, or in a bunch of smaller containers!!! It'll just frustrate you.

I have a huge ~20L narrow-mouth bottle that allows me to mix 5L in nothing flat. With a big bottle like this, you can swirl the bottle and agitate the fluid very strongly, so that the powder gets mixed very quickly, with no stirring and no spillage.

Once mixed and cooled to the appropriate temperature, the developer is very easy to use and stores very well. I transfer it to smaller bottles and seal those well. It keeps better that way. And ID11 (or d76) keeps well for many months.

I usually use mixed to 1+1 as a one-shot developer. It is an excellent all-purpose developer.

Here are some things I wrote up for another beginner. If they help you out, great. If they aren't useful for your work flow, just discard them and find what works for you.

=============
When I was learning I found the hardest part was getting the reel loaded in a changing bag. Seems I very often forgot to put the scissors in the bag so I could cut the end of the film from the 35mm cassette. That meant I had to carefully take one arm out, pinch off the bag at the arm hole, find the scissors, and then put my arm back in, all the while trying not to let light in the bag! Later, when I had a way to get the bathroom really dark and could quit using the bag using the counter top instead, I would find that I had put the scissors down somewhere on the counter and had to feel around for them for a while. Try to decide where you're going to keep the tools, and know where you have them - either on this or that side of the bag always, or some kind of system that works for you. (I just drop the scissors into a clean drinking glass sitting on the counter now, so I don't have to hunt for them in the dark.)

If you're doing 120 roll film it's a little different. You have to tear the tape off the the backing paper, not cut the film from the cassette. I find it's far better to carefully peel the tape from the paper (most modern backing paper is plastic coated, so the tape peels cleanly if you're careful and don't pull it too fast) then fold the tape over the end of the film. My own experience is that peeling the tape off the film instead of off the paper is harder in the dark, and I sometimes tear the film is it's one of the thin based films. You may find it works differently for you.

All of this you have to do without seeing what you're doing. No matter how much you practice with rolls of sacrificed practice film in the light so you can learn the motions, the first few times you have to do it without seeing it is weird and you fumble with it. But like driving a car or riding a bike, it becomes natural and you just fall into it after a few times. Like I mentioned earlier, I learn as a kid, so it can't be all that hard to do. Just make sure you have a really clear image of what the film reel looks like and where the film goes in so you tell if you've got it backwards in your hand in the dark. Doesn't matter if you use plastic or steel reels; they both only load one way and you can get confused the first few time you can't see it. If you know what little ridge or bump to feel for in the dark you can get it oriented properly pretty easily.

The chemistry part is absolutely no harder than making a cake or a meatloaf from your grandmother's scratch recipe. It may not be quite as easy as popping some frozen thing in the microwave, but it really isn't all that hard.

Mix the required amount of developer for your tank, stop bath, fixer plus a few jars of clean water, and if you can then put them in a tub of water so they're all the same temperature. Then measure the temperature of the *DEVELOPER*. Look up the temperature on the Ilford chart, and determine your developing time based on temperature. Everything is standardized to 68F, so if it's warm in the house and all you liquids are at 75F or 72F or 78Fyou need to adjust. Likewise if it is cold. Adjust based on the Ilford chart.

Assuming you have the tank loaded and ready to go, set some kind of timer or watch a clock with a second hand, then pour in the developer and agitate as appropriate.



The sequence I use when working by hand is this:



1) Developer time as by developer chart - discard afterward (one-shot)

2) Stop bath one minute - save if indicating bath, discard if vinegar

3) Water Bath (just fill and rinse) - discard afterward

4) Fixer - I usually over fix by going to 4 minutes on fresh fixer and longer if I'm reusing fixer. If you're only doing small amounts of film you can save the fixer for about 3-4 rolls, then discard it. If you really do a lot of film then the fixer has silver in it and is bad to pour down the drain. But even as much as 5-6 rolls of film per week is meaningless to the sewer system.

5) Water Wash - 4 changes of water with agitation if you use rapid fixer, a lot more if you use a hardening fixer.

6) Ilfotol as the last step. Discard this at the end.



So when I'm working by hand I usually have 9 mason jars set in order in a big roasting pan full of water before I even start putting the film in the changing bag. The mason jars have a wide mouth so the chemicals pour out smoothly instead of glugging out like a soda bottle. The I go through them like so:



1) Developer (this is the only time critical step - too little and too much mess up the film)

2) Stop Bath (hard to do too much, and pretty hard to do too little)

3) Water

4) Fixer (Can't do too much, but you *CAN* do too little - make sure you don't under fix)

5) Water (swish 60 seconds)

6) Water (swish 60 seconds)

7) Water (swish 60 seconds)

8) Water (swish 60 seconds)

9) Ilfotol (swish 60 seconds)



As far as the comments about you can't do too much, it's not exactly true. If you go answer the phone and forget about the stuff and come back the next morning you can find the emulsion lifting off the film base if it's in water. But If you need to fix for 4 minutes and you wind up fixing for 8 minutes it won't hurt anything. You can't over fix the film like you can overcook a turkey. You can under fix the film, however, and if the film is milky when you take it out this is what has happened. Same with the stop bath, once the developer is stopped, it's impossible over stop it, but after a long enough time (a few hours) the acetic acid will begin to harm the film.



Don't be discouraged if the first few rolls are less than perfect. Even though this isn't really hard, it's a lot to keep track of at first. By the third or fourth time though, it's pretty easy.



It helps a lot if you have a kitchen timer that you can set down to the second. The wind-up ones that just turn to the minute aren't really very useful. The little electronic ones can usually be set to the second, and you can pick up several at the dollar store sometimes. That gives you one for the developer and one for the fixer so you don't have to fumble around or watch the clock. The other steps are easy enough to count in your head of just watch a second hand on the kitchen clock.

The best instruction is to follow the directions on the packages.