One shot developer - amount of developer

[aca91]

Hello,

I've been using HC-110 dilution H and Rodinal as my base developers. I was wondering if there is a minimum amount of developer that has to be used each time for good results.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

I prefer not to go lower than 5ml per roll. So...yeah. I need a larger tank when doing stand.

 

[psychfunk]

Most people use a rule of thumb of 6ml of syrup per roll of 135-36. Personally, I use just under 5ml (I'm never precise about it, but it's around 4.75ml) without any bother.

 

[MattKing]

You can calculate the minimums by extrapolating the capacity numbers given by the manufacturer. In the case of HC-110, the extrapolation yields about 6 ml syrup per 135-36 or 120 roll or 8x10 sheet.

The actual capacity will vary with the subject - high key subjects producing dense negatives use more than negatives that end up thin and mostly near clear.

 

[Helinophoto]

I actually think they also state that on the bottle or in the white-paper as well, somewhere around 5ml is minimum for both AFAIK.

- They are both very economical, so I tend to make around 100ml more finished developer than I need for any given film, just to avoid uneven development etc.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

The following excelent website on HC-110, http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110, recomends no less than 6 ml per roll of 135 36 exp or 120 roll film.

 

[polyglot]

10mL for Rodinal according to Agfa. Plenty of people will claim that 5 or 6mL is OK but you're pushing your luck at that point and heavily-exposed rolls will suffer from dev exhaustion.

 

[aca91]

Thank you all for your help, it was very useful. Does anybody uses Hc-110 Dilution H (unofficial) or recommends other single shot developers? What about other single shot chemicals? I mix sodium sulfite (about 10g/liter, it's called CB-3 I think) as a clearing agent, but I would love to be able to prepare single shot versions of all the chemicals involved. Any suggestions?

 

[Gerald C Koch]

You don't say which films you use but for slow films ISO 125 or less like Ilford Pan-F there is the Beutler developer. This developer uses only three ingredients Metol, sodium sulfite and sodium carbonate. The Metol and sulfite are in part A and the sodium carbonate in part B. For use you dilute 1:1:8. I used this developer for years with Kodak Pan-X with excellent results.

 

[Helinophoto]

I use HC-110 dilution H some times, it depends a little on the initial development time, actually I often use H when pushing (not sure if it's any better than B though ) I've never used any less than 7,5ml HC-110 though, I simply make up more, so I need more syrup.

In Rodinal, I once did a 1:200 stand and I think I was down to around 5ml Rodinal. Worked ok, but I wouldn't use such a small amount of developer on any critical work.

Caffenol is a pretty good single-shot developer (cheap too), takes just a few minutes to mix it up, and the ingredients keep very well.

TMax 100 in caffenol is very very nice actually.

As you get into higher iso films, you probably need to add some Potassium Bromide to reduce fogging. (the caffenol blog has a lot of data on various film trials).

I use HC-110 and Rodinal, although I do have stuff like XTol and other developers hidden somewhere. (I shoot pretty low volumes, so I need the developer to keep and keep and keep ^^ )