New Developer Formula for Freestyle Ortho APHS

[jimgalli]

I've used the APHS for many years from Freestyle as a continuous tone film for LF and ULF. Hey, it's cheap so the lure has long been there. Plus I originally gravitated to it because of it's main problem for Silver printers. It's contrasty as hell which you can make work for you in Pt/Pd. But what if you want a normal range for silver contact prints?

A Pyro guy for years, I first started experimenting with PMK massively diluted. Success was so-so. I'm no gadget Gainer but I do know just enough and had a few things on hand to be dangerous. At one time I used to mix my E6 developer from powders. The formulas all used 2 restrainers. .2% Benzotriazole, and .1% Potassium Iodide. So I thought I'll experiment with these 2 restrainers with my developers for the APHS to try to tame it a bit.

I wound up with a useable Pyro-Catechol developer doing this but I never shared it because it still was kind of "iffy".

Last evening I tried the same thing with Rodinal and things began to fall nicely into place. The 2 photographs below are both developed last evening in the new soup.

Petzval Prickly Poppies

Jesus Reigns on High​

It's very simple. Make the 2 restrainer solutions. 1 gram Potassium Iodide into 1 liter H2O makes the .1% solution. Likewise, 2 gram Benzotriazole into 1 liter H2O makes the .2% solution. A couple of fairly good sized syringes are handy for mixing. Here's the formula:

5cc Rodinal
20cc .2% Benzotriazole
4cc .1% Potassium Iodide
1000cc H2O

That's IT! I never made smaller quantities than 1 liter per sheet because the Rodinal will exhaust fairly quickly.

Here's my procedure for developing. I develop with a red light on just a few feet away from the 10X12" tray. I can see exactly what I'm getting. APHS needs a minute or so water rinse to get the anti halation gook off of it. Pour that out and pour the developer directly in. Start a timer pre-set for 10 minutes or so. When the image "emerges" not just the first highlights, but the recognizeable image, I note the time and multiply by four. So if my image comes up in 100 seconds, I force myself to keep rocking the tray until 400 seconds. It's very easy in the dim red light to pull the film too soon. Last evening the negs all fell within 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 minutes.

Stop development in 3 seperate baths of H20. Take a good couple of minutes for this.

Fix like any other film.

Negatives are greenish and seem a bit scant compared to regular negs. On multi-contrast paper I usually print with a #3 or #3 1/2 contrast filter to overcome the green and add a little boost if needed. The prints above were made on Kentmere VCFB.

Oh, BTW for you Rodinal worshippers....this was done with the 1972 bottle that I opened the other day. It's the old glass bottle with the rubber stopper that you puncture and leave your syringe sticking out of the top

Let me know your thoughts!

 

[glennfromwy]

Jim, I'm not familiar with that particular film but it seems perhaps similar to Kodalith, which I have lots of. Am I on the right track in assuming your developer would work with it? Sure would be nice.

 

[Mongo]

Well Jim, my first thought was "really nice pictures!" But I don't think that's what you're looking for.

I've been thinking about trying out APHS (the lure of cheap film is very hard to resist), but wasn't sure about developing it for continuous tone. Your Rodinal solution looks like just the ticket. Thanks for sharing it. I'll be ordering a box to try this with.

Would you mind sharing what speed you rated the film at? Thanks in advance.

Be well.
Dave

 

[jimgalli]

Yes, it is very nearly the same as the Kodalith. Freestyle APH may have actually been Kodalith, I don't know. I do remember that the APH film was mfd in USA while the better APHS film was made in Japan. Dave, I rate it at ASA 3. You will have to play with it a bit to come up with your own reciprocity predictions but I will start you off by saying it is much less than ordinary film. For instance, the building shot in open shade was metered at 2 min.s f64 and I gave 3 1/2.

 

[Mongo]

Thanks Jim...very much appreciated, and about what I expected.

 

[reggie]

Jim:

Would you recommend this formula for Ilford Orthos film? I too started trying to greatly dilute paper developers (Dektol) but still got pretty contrasty negatives. I will give this a shot. If I get the Dekeol dilution correct, I;ll let everyone know.

-R

 

[ricksplace]

I have been using lith sheet film in 2x3 and 4x5 for many years. I soup it in rodinal at 1:150 with very little agitation. I give the tray a light rock only once per minute. I develop by inspection (around 7 to 10 minutes seems good) with the safelight on, and as Jim says, it's easy to pull them out of the soup too soon. There's an image on my gallery called "roadside lake" that was shot on Freestyle lith film and developed in this manner. I don't notice any difference between Kodalith and Freestyle, other than the Freestyle film base seems a little thinner. I shoot them both at iso 5.

I have tried ultra diluted d76, hc110, and dektol with lith film. All gave lousy results. Way too contrasty.

I also echo what Jim says about stop, use a water stop. Acid stop sometimes produces pinholes in lith film.

An added bonus of the ultra diluted rodinal and minimal agitation is incredible sharpness. As Jim says, at that extreme dilution, rodinal exhausts fast.

If I had access to some of the chemicals Jim mentioned, I'd try them to see the difference.

I shoot lith film a lot. It's a blast to watch it develop in the trays. I use a white tray for developing, it makes it easier to judge when to pull it.

Rick.

 

[rhphoto]

Has anyone tried either highly diluted amidol, or dilute D-23 (which is basically just Metol and sulfite)? One other contrast-control developer was the old POTA developer, which some used to develop Tech Pan to a continuous tone film. And that makes me wonder if Technodol would work with lith film.

 

[jimgalli]

Those that are familiar with mixing E6 and other color formulae from scratch will recognize the 2 "restrainers" as a common building block for taming contrast. They are cheap and well worth a trip on line to your favorite chemical supplier. A few grams will last nearly a lifetime.

 

[Ryuji]

Yes, it is very nearly the same as the Kodalith. Freestyle APH may have actually been Kodalith, I don't know. I do remember that the APH film was mfd in USA while the better APHS film was made in Japan. Dave, I rate it at ASA 3. You will have to play with it a bit to come up with your own reciprocity predictions but I will start you off by saying it is much less than ordinary film. For instance, the building shot in open shade was metered at 2 min.s f64 and I gave 3 1/2.

I don't know if the formula for APH was always the same, but the one I have is clearly very different from Kodalith Ortho 6556 type 3, also the same emulsion as Ektagraphic HC. It appears to me that APH is a silver chlorobromide emulsion with rhodium doping, and Kodalith is a mostly bromide emulsion with a lith development enhancing agent coated together with the emulsion. Kodalith is much better film if your goal is to develop for a low gamma for continuous tone use. With my APH, it's very hard to get decent low contrast without losing Dmax, unless I flash the film before imagewise exposure.

I don't know about the new APH films... If someone gives me a sample I'll try...

 

[Ryuji]

Addendum to my previous post:

Dead Link Removed