relistan
Member
I'm not really looking for any specific answers here, but trying to learn. I recently picked up a 1971 copy of the "ORWO Rezepts" book in German. Many of the developer formulas seem pretty interesting to me. They are quite different than older Kodak formulas I have read. I find them interesting for a few reasons:
I would expect the following characteristics from my understanding:
Do my assumptions seem correct above? Has anyone tried any old ORWO developers?
Thanks!
- They nearly all seem to use sodium carbonate or potassium carbonate as the alkali.
- As a result the pH of most of them is pretty high: most over 10
- They also nearly all then add potassium bromide to offset the activity and pH
- Suggested development times seem very short: some are 1-3 mins for certain applications, average about 4-5 mins
- One developer has a pH listed at 5.9, another 6.5 by using boric acid and no carbonate (I don't think I've seen one that low before?)
I would expect the following characteristics from my understanding:
- Reasonably grainy due to the high pH for most of them (at least with modern film?)
- Those short times must mean the hydroquinone is pretty active (pH is high enough)
- As a result fairly constrasty?
- Water softener agent 2g
- Metol 1.1g
- Hydroquinone 1.6g
- Potassium bisulfite 0.4g
- Sodium sulfite 21.5g
- Sodium carbonate 6g
- Potassium bromide 0.4g
Do my assumptions seem correct above? Has anyone tried any old ORWO developers?
Thanks!
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