Paterson Photographic UK is done with chemicals

John Wiegerink · Sep 10, 2013

Read on another site that Paterson Photographic is done making chemicals - developers etc. About a year ago or so I had heard that a outfit in Spain was suppose to pickup production of Paterson's developers at least. Then I neither heard nor read a thing until today. If this is true I wonder if they'll release the formula for Acutol or even FX39. Who knows?????

OzJohn · Sep 10, 2013

A long gone British magazine once claimed that Crawley never shared the entire recipe for Acutol with anyone, not even Paterson. Rather, it was claimed, he supplied them with a "secret ingredient X". Always sounded like BS to me but then I didn't consider any Paterson chemical products to be that good - just overpriced. OzJohn

pdeeh · Sep 11, 2013

That's interesting, I looked at their site quite recently and it listed various chemicals.

Prompted by the OP I looked again just now - they have indeed gone.

There does remain a link to b&w chemicals in their "e-shop", which leads to a "page does not exist"

Shame they haven't got an info or press-release page that explains.

Ian Grant · Sep 11, 2013

Originally Paterson chemistry was made for them by Ilford, later both Ilford and paterson chemistry was made by Champion in the UK. Wwhen Champion closed their UK plant &moved production to Spain they gained the contract to make all Kodak's chemistry in the US, EU etc and dropped manufacture of Ilford & Paterson chemistry.

Paterson chemistry only made a modest comeback after that all their superb colour chemistry (originally Photocolor) disappeared completely.

Ian

Tom Kershaw · Sep 11, 2013

I have a litre of FX-39 that I was going to try but now it seems rather fruitless, and I've settled on XTOL anyway...

Tom

railwayman3 · Sep 11, 2013

TBH (and I'm in the UK), I wasn't aware that Paterson chemicals had been available for many years.

Mike Wilde · Sep 11, 2013

While I have not used them in over twenty years, they were the vendors of the first wet chemistry I ever used.

I remeber the short brown plastic bottles with oversized white screw lids. Ah, the joy of middle age.

Remembering things that no longer exist.

AndreasT · Sep 11, 2013

Really no more FX-39?? I love that stuff.

Роберт · Sep 19, 2013

Instead of FX-39 you can make FX-37, which is very, very close to it. FX-37 is a G. Crawley published formulae.

eclarke · Sep 19, 2013

Роберт said:
Instead of FX-39 you can make FX-37, which is very, very close to it. FX-37 is a G. Crawley published formulae.

And a great developer for TMX,TMY and Efke Aura.

John Plowman · Sep 19, 2013

If anyone can get hold of the Recipe for Acutol (FX14) they will certainly get a medal from me. My finest results were always with Acutol, and I still mourn the loss of it. At the moment I am getting by with Beutler, or FX1 at half strength. At the moment I testing the new issue of Pan 25 from Rollei. It is APX25 repacked I think.

Роберт · Sep 20, 2013

Pan 25 from Rollei. It is APX25 repacked I think.

Efke 25 ...... (also gone).

But the difference of Beutler and FX-1 you can not see. That trace of KI is neglectible.

John Wiegerink · Sep 20, 2013

John Plowman said:
If anyone can get hold of the Recipe for Acutol (FX14) they will certainly get a medal from me. My finest results were always with Acutol, and I still mourn the loss of it. At the moment I am getting by with Beutler, or FX1 at half strength. At the moment I testing the new issue of Pan 25 from Rollei. It is APX25 repacked I think.

FX-14 was one that I missed out on. but would have really liked to try. Maybe we'll see it someday - maybe we won't? JohnW

John Wiegerink · Sep 20, 2013

eclarke said:
And a great developer for TMX,TMY and Efke Aura.

Evan,
You turned me on to FX-37 and it is really special. I have some negatives I developed the other day that really look great and they were from Foma 100. The grain is there, but the pattern could not be nicer and they are SHARP. This was all in 120 film size, but I'm going to try it next with some 4x5 film. I don't know why more people don't use/try FX-37 as it works great, is fast and super-easy to mix also. A real sleeper developer. JohnW

AndreasT · Sep 20, 2013

Sure one could use FX-37. I was concidering mixing some in the future. However it was good value for money here, and mixing is more expensive.
It is a pity and a shame if brands vanish the way they were made are lost as well.
As far as I am concerned if they stop production they should be forced to publicise their recipes. You know to keep some culture alive, or something like that.

Kevin Caulfield · Sep 20, 2013

I agree about how great FX37 is. I started mixing and using it 6 months ago for the reason that I felt I could not rely on a continuing supply of FX39. It is an amazing developer.

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John Wiegerink · Sep 22, 2013

Kevin Caulfield said:
I agree about how great FX37 is. I started mixing and using it 6 months ago for the reason that I felt I could not rely on a continuing supply of FX39. It is an amazing developer.

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk 2

Yes, it's one of those developers that kind of grows on you. My first try/batch didn't go so well so I set the idea of FX37 aside for a while. Then I tried it, with of all things, Fuji Acros and liked it. Of course almost any developer is compatible with Acros. Next was an old roll of HP5 and I really liked that, but it was the last HP5(I mean old) I had. Next was Tmax 100 and Tmy2 and it did as good or better than Xtol, but that's just my opinion. But the real surprise was some Arista 100 that had a real nice grain pattern to it. This was all 120 film and maybe had I used 35mm my thoughts might be different.
As for these extinct Crawley/Paterson formula like FX39 and Acutol/FX14 maybe we should all send some letters/emails to the top of Paterson's food chain and explain why it would be a good idea to release the chemistry make-up of the discontinued developers. After all everybody can mix the own D76, but I bet Kodak still sells a ton of it. Truth is, it's not likely film is going to take a big turn-around and Paterson will want to jump back into it again. If they did they could still sell lots of developer to folk who don't want to be mixing their own. Just like Kodak and D76. Heck, I think it would even be better for Paterson's business. I'll be getting an email of sometime next week. JohnW

Regular Rod · Sep 22, 2013

Does anyone know if their little dropper bottles of wetting agent are still available? Fixer is no problem as Ilford Rapid Fixer is still around and mega sharp developer is no problem as Jay DeFehr has published freely his recipe for OBSIDIAN AQUA, but a decent wetting agent that is easy to use without bubbles and precipitates is not so easy to find. The Paterson stuff was just right.

RR

John Wiegerink · Sep 22, 2013

Regular Rod said:
Does anyone know if their little dropper bottles of wetting agent are still available? Fixer is no problem as Ilford Rapid Fixer is still around and mega sharp developer is no problem as Jay DeFehr has published freely his recipe for OBSIDIAN AQUA, but a decent wetting agent that is easy to use without bubbles and precipitates is not so easy to find. The Paterson stuff was just right.

RR

I've never used Paterson's wetting agent, but I have used Kodak's Photo-Flo and Edwal's LFN. I now use Edwal's LFN for the same reason you like Paterson's wetting agent. NO BUBBLES!

Regular Rod · Sep 22, 2013

John Wiegerink said:
I've never used Paterson's wetting agent, but I have used Kodak's Photo-Flo and Edwal's LFN. I now use Edwal's LFN for the same reason you like Paterson's wetting agent. NO BUBBLES!

That looks like a plan to me. Is Edwal's LFN available in the UK?

RR

Ian Grant · Sep 22, 2013

Regular Rod said:
That looks like a plan to me. Is Edwal's LFN available in the UK?

RR

Try MrCad he sells Edwal products in the UK

Ian

Роберт · Sep 22, 2013

LFN and Rollei Super Wetting Agent (1+1000 -1+2000) are the best wetting agents available. Comparing them with Agepon or Photoflo they are Miles better.
RSWA is made by CG, an Udo Raffay product and easily available in Europe. That guy made also CG-512 an Ultra Fine Grain 24C developer and Film Low Gamma both sold under RLS and RLC now (Rollei-Maco brand).

miha · Sep 22, 2013

Роберт said:
LFN and Rollei Super Wetting Agent (1+1000 -1+2000) are the best wetting agents available. Comparing them with Agepon or Photoflo they are Miles better.
RSWA is made by CG, an Udo Raffay product and easily available in Europe..

Any relation to Moersch Laboflo?

Роберт · Sep 22, 2013

It could be the same hence Mr. W. Moersch is also doing business with CG but you could ask it himself. Inventing every time the wheel again is not always very effectieve.

miha · Sep 22, 2013

I'm asking because the Laboflo really does the job well with 120 film, but I prefer Ilford product with perforated films as it seems that Laboflo somehow sticks to the perforation holes in 135 film.

Paterson Photographic UK is done with chemicals

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