PC-Tea formula discrepancy

[thomsonrc]

Hi

I was just about to mix my first PC-Tea batch according to the formula give in the new Darkroom Cookbook but I noticed that this gives 0.5g of phenidone rather than .25g which I have seen here. Is this an error, or has the formula changed?

Thanks

Ritchie

 

[gainer]

It's pretty hard to get something that doesn't work. A ratio of 50 grams of ascorbic acid to 1 of Phenidone is where the synergism is close to maximum. 90 grams of ascorbic acid and 1.8 grams of phenidone are fairly easily dissolved in a liter of TEA or propylene glycol. The glycol solution requires a separate alkaline activator. Either one will require some experimenting to find what dilutions work for you.

If you use 0.25 or 0.5 grams of Phenidone with 90 or 100 grams of ascorbic acid, you will have, I think, a lot of reserve capacity, but to get the activity you may want, you will need less dilution. It might be just the thing for stand or minimum agitation development, however.