Paterson FX 39 anyone?

ADOX Fotoimpex · Dec 2, 2013

John,

Acutol was abandoned by Paterson in 2005. What is so special about this developer that you are still looking for it?

Mirko

JW PHOTO · Dec 2, 2013

ADOX Fotoimpex said:
John,

Acutol was abandoned by Paterson in 2005. What is so special about this developer that you are still looking for it?

Mirko

Mirko,

Simply because I had heard very good things about it. Of course, the real truth is that I never tried it while it was still being made and now I'd love to. Kind of like some of those girls back in high school! Some of those girls are still around, but they don't look near as hot at 64 or 65 yrs. old. Maybe Acutol wouldn't be so hot either? If it's not going to be made anymore then maybe the formula might be made public????? (fingers crossed and I'm not alone) JohnW

Kevin Caulfield · Dec 2, 2013

JohnW, you could always try FX15, which is Acutol S. I like it.

JW PHOTO · Dec 2, 2013

Kevin Caulfield said:
JohnW, you could always try FX15, which is Acutol S. I like it.

Yes, Paterson kept Acutol S in their line up until the end and it's said to be a very good developer, but Auctol was suppose to beat it slightly in the sharpness/acutance department. I don't know if that's true or not? To be very honest about this, I really don't need any other developer other than what I use right now, but it would have been fun to try Acutol to see if it was all hype or not. Right now my favorite FX developer is FX37 and that's why I said I'm might not get really excited over FX39 especially if I can't locate it very easy. FX37 I can make in about 15 minutes. JohnW

AndreasT · Dec 3, 2013

Good for Adox to keep on making FX-39. If Mirko was a girl I would kiss her.
I really like that developer. Although the price increase does hurt. If I may say so. A price increase of 100%, is that correct. Not that I am complaining.
What is the difference between FX-39 and FX-37?
They are supposed to be similar, but how similar.
Has anybody tried to find out?
I am not really interested in the super detail difference, but I once saw a report of a comparison between Rodinal and a homemade Rodinal substitute using headache pills or whatever.
Saying that basically they were the same but when they showed a close up there was a large difference to be seen.

ADOX Fotoimpex · Dec 7, 2013

A price increase of 100%, is that correct

Not quite. It used to be around 10 EUR for 1000ml and now it will be 8 EUR for 500ml (end user price including tax).
But the 1000ml price is from 2006 when we started manufacturing it for Paterson and now it is 7 years later.
Most other developers have risen in price in the meantime by 40% and the smaller bottle adds to the cost.
Our distributors in the UK already showed interest to carry the new developer so it will be available locally on the island.
We could probably make a 1000ml bottle as a follow up at lower costs.
FX 37 is not FX 39. Differences are small but all differences are relatively small between quality B&W products today.
We had Geoffrey Crawley over here when we started making it. Those were impressive two days.
This man knew a lot about photochemistry and it was hard to pass on all knowledge needed to us in the timeframe given.

Mirko

Thomas Bertilsson · Dec 7, 2013

Mirko, do you know if anybody here in the US, like Freestyle, will be bringing the developer in?

JW PHOTO · Dec 7, 2013

AndreasT said:
Good for Adox to keep on making FX-39. If Mirko was a girl I would kiss her.
I really like that developer. Although the price increase does hurt. If I may say so. A price increase of 100%, is that correct. Not that I am complaining.
What is the difference between FX-39 and FX-37?
They are supposed to be similar, but how similar.
Has anybody tried to find out?
I am not really interested in the super detail difference, but I once saw a report of a comparison between Rodinal and a homemade Rodinal substitute using headache pills or whatever.
Saying that basically they were the same but when they showed a close up there was a large difference to be seen.

Andreas,
That's exactly what I'm going to find out. I do like FX37 for a few films and will continue to mix it, but I will buy a trial run of FX39 just to see if there is a difference and if the difference is worth the price of FX39. JohnW

AndreasT · Dec 8, 2013

Thanks Mirko, I would love to have head what Mr Geoffrey Crawley had to say. I am sure it would have been interesting.
JohnW please do report what your finding are. I may try a comparison myself sometime in the future.

JW PHOTO · Dec 8, 2013

AndreasT said:
Thanks Mirko, I would love to have head what Mr Geoffrey Crawley had to say. I am sure it would have been interesting.
JohnW please do report what your finding are. I may try a comparison myself sometime in the future.

Will do! It's always nice to have a product available that you don't have to mix, but I find it rather fun to play chemist again. Of course there are some common sense rules and I've already learn a lesson about not following them. Brings me back to my High School chemistry class days. JohnW

tleirtro · Jan 22, 2014

Any news on when the Adox FX-39 will be available?

Keith Tapscott. · Jan 22, 2014

ADOX Fotoimpex said:
I brought this up to let everyone know that we made the decision to keep FX-39 developer allive after Paterson decided to stop the production.
We will manufacture it in house now on a smaller scale which ramps up the price but I think we can still make a competitive offer.
In order to keep the price per unit within reason we decided to bottle it in 500ml (just like our Adonal/Rodinal).
The price per bottle will be around 8 EUR.
This yields about 20 films, so 40 cents per film.

The product will be available in about 2-3 weeks if all goes well with the new production.

Kind Regards,

Mirko

Is there any chance of bringing back Acutol and Aculux as well?

JW PHOTO · Jan 22, 2014

Keith Tapscott. said:
Is there any chance of bringing back Acutol and Aculux as well?

Yes, I haven't seen or heard anything here about FX-39 either. Winter is long in Michigan and a good time to play with something like the FX-39 - FX-37 comparison. It would seem that making Acutol or even Aculux again wouldn't be a big problem since Adox is already?? making FX-39. Just mix up the chems, put in the same bottle as FX-39 and stick a different label on it. What's so hard about that? Will it sell?? You don't know until you try. The real question is if it's worth trying?

Keith Tapscott. · Jan 22, 2014

JW PHOTO said:
Yes, I haven't seen or heard anything here about FX-39 either. Winter is long in Michigan and a good time to play with something like the FX-39 - FX-37 comparison.

It would seem that making Acutol or even Aculux again wouldn't be a big problem since Adox is already?? making FX-39.

Just mix up the chems, put in the same bottle as FX-39 and stick a different label on it. What's so hard about that? Will it sell?? You don't know until you try. The real question is if it's worth trying?

Now there's an idea! At least it will keep dev times more consistent from one developer to the other.

JW PHOTO · Jan 22, 2014

Keith Tapscott. said:
Now there's an idea! At least it will keep dev times more consistent from one developer to the other.

Hmmm! Sometimes I just don't make myself clear enough. Keith, what I meant was they could use the same container, add Acutol developer and stick a different label on that said Acutol. Buying the chemicals to do a short run and printing labels that say Acutol couldn't be that bank-breaking. If it didn't sell well you could then drop it, but the initial trial couldn't be that expensive since you are already making FX-39. Just a thought of course and sometimes my thoughts are way out in outer space. JohnW

Ricardo Miranda · Dec 3, 2014

ADOX FX-39 is now available: http://www.adox.de/Photo/?page_id=2045

Also in the UK it is available through AG Photographic: http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/adox-paterson-fx39-500ml-372-p.asp

Paterson FX 39 anyone?

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