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OP
OP

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Aurum said:
Well if I had a wish list....

A one shot reversal developer for making slides out of standard B&W negative film.

Oh and world peace and harmony while you're at it?

can you have it ready by next week? No rush
Click to expand...

Can't do any of the above. The first can only be done by means of the emulsion itself and the R&D and chemicals make that out of my reach.

As for the rest, for some reason, my name did not appear on any ballot on Nov. 4th here in the US, and therefore my opportunity to take a crack at world peace is somewhat diminished. I can whip up a batch of whirled peas for you though.

As for the rest of this week and next week, I'm totally booked performing a series of miracles with Ford Prefect.

PE
 

Thomas Bertilsson

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Ron, I admire your drive to do all these things. When I run out of 130 and Multigrade, I'll try some Liquidol.
The film developer I use mostly is Pyrocat, but lately I've started using Rodinal again. I like it sharp. I don't need more film developers.
What I could use is more geared towards the chemistry needed for toning. An explanation of different types of bleach, and what effect the various bleaches have on toning - and also bleach available in kit form that I can mix into stock solutions in my home.
I use sepia, selenium, thiourea, and will venture into thiocarbamide and gold toning soon.

Thanks for all you do! Good luck with Ford Prefect.

- Thomas
 

spoolman

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I would definitely go for the fixer that washes out of film and fibre base paper,the very highly concentrated and economical developer and the high accutance developer.But the fixer is the number one product I would buy and in large volume.

Doug
 

MattKing

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How about a monobath for RC prints that doesn't require further fixing for print longevity?

Matt
 
OP
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MattKing said:
How about a monobath for RC prints that doesn't require further fixing for print longevity?

Matt
Click to expand...

Matt;

Monobaths have never been commerciallized to any great extent due to a number of faults. The monobath and the process just about has to be tailored to each film for optimum results.

I'll consider it, but it will be a low priority.

PE
 

MattKing

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Photo Engineer said:
Matt;

Monobaths have never been commerciallized to any great extent due to a number of faults. The monobath and the process just about has to be tailored to each film for optimum results.

I'll consider it, but it will be a low priority.

PE
Click to expand...

Thanks Ron, but did you notice I referred to RC prints, rather than films.

I would just like to have a one solution (two if you count washing) option for my bathroom/darkroom.

Matt
 
OP
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Matt, same is true but in a different way for papers.

They have a great tendancy to form dichroic fog and to have high dmin in monobaths. Also, the few modern fixing agents that might help are rather expensive, toxic or both.

I could try, but guarantee nothing.

PE
 

hawkwind

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I want a Matte FB paper that had better rendition of blacks, film that is rated at its true speed, and film / paper developers that are so non-toxic and environmentally freindly that you could drink them.

Barring all that, I think the fixer idea is wonderful. I'd like to wash less.

Also, how about some kind of dye that could be used to tell when a print is washed archivally? After fixing and a short rinse, dunk the paper into this imaginary liqud dye, and wash. When all of the dye is gone, the paper is archival. I suppose it would have to color only residual fixer.

Thanks!
--Gary
 
OP
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Gary;

There are several environmentally friendly sets of chemistry out there, but you will never see one that is drinkable just due to the laws of chemistry and physics and human physiology.

Liquidol is very dilute at its working strength and therefore is rather "friendly" due to dilution.

As for a dye, yes there is a test kit. It turns yellow when the print is not washed properly, but the dot is permanent. I test on the borders of my prints. Again, using a true dye and washing it out of a print involves potential staining of the print. Maybe, but no guarantee, especially since the existing test is so simple and cheap.

PE
 

kodachrome64

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PE:

I vote for the fixer. Is there anything wrong with diluting fixer to get, say, a 5 or 10 minute total fixing time, and use it one-shot? This idea appeals to me but I want to make sure it is just as archival.

Thanks,
Nick
 

psvensson

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I'd buy an improved version of HC-110. I mix my own MC-TEA, inspired by Gainer, and add sulfite and boric acid at development time. The results are close to X-tol, and the MC-TEA stock lasts for years. But mixing the MC-TEA and adding two more chemicals from powder just before development is a hassle. A single-solution, water-free fine-grain commercial developer would be great.
 
OP
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Nick;

Just about any fixer on the market today can be diluted to get 5 - 10 min fix time and be archiival as long as you fix and wash and test! The problem is that too much dilution can prevent the hypo from completely dissolving or transporting the silver halide complexes out of the coating. Testing will reveal the correct dilutions and wash times.

PE
 
OP
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Peter;

Water free is the key word here. This limits concentration and at the same time limits lifetime. Organic solvents can be used, but then we are right back to HC110 and the same product - is the same product. I hope to try something different.

PE
 

Ian Grant

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Matt, I have used Monobaths for RC prints with great successs, this was partof a research project back in the mid 70's.

Use Crawley's FX6a as a starting point. Although a film developer it works well with RC papers. I found my notes a few months ago I'll dig them out and put my findings on;ine here next time I'm in the UK. I remember making a few tweaks tothe formula to achieve better contrast.

FX6a is in Steve Anchells Darkroom Cookbook, 3rd Edition. And is also in thread here on APUG.

Ian
 
OP
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Ian;

I was not familiar with this particular developer and based my comments on experiemnts with Bromide and Chloro-Bromide papers that I did years ago, and also experiments with monobath type developers. I am not aware that any had been commercialized. I think that commercialization is a part of what I am trying to do in order to reach the average darkroom worker that does not want to hand mix.

There are a lot of formulas out there that are not suitable for making into prepackaged kits for a variety of reasons, and many that are suitable are only one-shot or toxic. So, although this may be a fine developer, I will restrict myself to ones that can be made up in advance and kept for quite a time on the shelf as a higly concentrated stock, and then have high capacity and good keeping in the tray or tank. This pretty much typifies commercial process chemistry today. I'm just trying to go one better. Most of the formulas I read are rather antique to me.

PE
 

psvensson

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Is the problem getting the sulfite ions into the mix? I understand HC-110 contains a source of sulfite ions, but they're too dilute to make it a real fine-grain developer.
 

Ian Grant

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Ron (PE), back in the late 70's it was suggested I market the Monobath formula I'd devised. It really did work extremely well with RC papers, but I just couldn't see a demand for it. The formula I devised was for a special application and for one off use, for archival purposes you would still need to fix RC paper afterwards.

The demand for a commercial monobath would be even smaller now than it was in the late 70's when there were at least 2 maybe 3 available commercially (that I knew of). So it's not a feasible proposition, paerticularly as a formula would still require very slight twaeking for optimal results with different brands of paper.

Ian
 
OP
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Ian;

Your key word here is a post fix for archival purposes. The OP on this topic asked to avoid that! That is what stopped me!

Peter;

Solvent developers (non H2O) use sulfur dioxide gas in TEA or the like to avoid insoluable sulfite salts. The same can be said for halide salts. Something organic is used. This increases cost and limits availability to me, so I go another route.

PE
 

hawkwind

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I was exaggerating about the "drinking" part, and I've used the Silvergrain products, which are supposed to be fairly eco-friendly. I've also used some toxic stuff, which I bottle up and take to the hazardous waste dump. I haven't tried the Liquidol, but I just read the data sheet, and I'm intrigued. I've used Photographer's Formulary stuff extensively, so I'll get some on my next order.

I've also used the Photographer's Formulary test kit, but it always spreads out into the image, seemingly no matter how small of a drop I put onto the boarder. Perhaps "dye" was the wrong word to use. I'm nowhere near being a chemist, but if something could be developed to give the residual fixer a slight color that would wash away completely when the print becomes archival in the wash, it would be a great help.

By the way, Last time I used my residual hypo test, I noticed that it was out of date by a couple months. I got no visible spot on the print, so I initially thought that the wash had been finished after a remarkably short wash. Will the test kit lose its effectiveness once ot is out of date? A further piece of info. I had just switched from Orbit Bath to Heico Perma wash. I was using Forte Polywarmtone FB (my last box).
 
OP
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The residual hypo test does not go bad if stored properly (in a dark bottle in a cool place). It is silver nitrate in acetic acid. Coloring the fix with something that washes out at the same rate as silver complexes and hypo would be a huge research task and probably impossible. Sorry.

The problem in developers is generally one of concentration and pH. No chemical is good in high concentration and an alkaline pH is not good for the environment when the buffer capacity is high such as in a developer. The demand of a chemical for oxygen during decomposition (BOD and COD) are also measures of impact on the environment. So, you can have a non-toxic chemical that has a high BOD or COD and it is unfriendly.

The way to beat this is to use dilute chemistry that does the job without taxing the normal pH or that has a high oxygen demand. If your chemistry does that, then it is low in environmental impact. You can also reduce impact by reducing water consumption. These are all things that I am working on at the present time.

PE
 

Philippe-Georges

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Photo Engineer; Sorry said:
Sorry to reed this, I was hoping for something like the reappearance of the old formula VIRADON...

BTW, does anybody knows this formula, for home brewing?

Philippe
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CBG

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One more vote for a fix. Neutral to alkaline, lowish odor, difficult to over-fix with, non-hardening, easy fast washing.

Thanks!

C
 
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