Processing difficulties

pentaxuser · Jun 1, 2010

Michael R 1974 said:
Sorry pentaxuser I was writing my response to Tony-S and posted it (just above) before I saw you had already responded.

No problem The very same has happened to me. By the time you have composed a reply to post A and sent it someone has posted in the interim and confusion can reign

We all have different interpretations of what Ilford says/means. All I can say is that what I quoted works for me and clearly worked for John Tinsley who developed films on a commercial basis.

Leon Taylor who used to post here and has had articles in the U.K. B&W magazine was also in the past a user of Perceptol at 1+3. In fact I got some help from him several years ago when I decided to try Perceptol. If he had needed a 1 litre tank to do it I feel sure he would have said this was a requirement for 1+3

pentaxuser

Tony-S · Jun 14, 2010

Well I finally got around to shooting and processing a roll of Acros 100 using the same 1+2 Perceptol and the answer seems to be:

Invert the tank.

I used 150ml of Perceptol and 300ml of water and developed for 16 min at 24 C (75 F). I inverted the tank 5x at the beginning and then 5x at 13 min, 10 min, 7 min, 4 min, 2 min. On the other minutes I just did the circular agitation for 10 min. The uneven development is gone and the negatives look pretty good. I'll do some scanning later tonight or tomorrow to see how they look when made into positives.

Thanks again to all who contributed to this thread.

Thomas Bertilsson · Jun 15, 2010

You want to invert the tank every time you agitate. That's how you agitate. The center pin rod that you spin the spindle in Paterson tanks is just not a very good solution.

Agitate continuously for the first 30 seconds. Then 5s every 30s or 10s every minute until you get consistent results. Finally you can extend or shorten your standard development time based on the lighting conditions once your comfortable with your normal development time.

Good on ya for finding the reason!

Tony-S said:
Well I finally got around to shooting and processing a roll of Acros 100 using the same 1+2 Perceptol and the answer seems to be:

Invert the tank.

I used 150ml of Perceptol and 300ml of water and developed for 16 min at 24 C (75 F). I inverted the tank 5x at the beginning and then 5x at 13 min, 10 min, 7 min, 4 min, 2 min. On the other minutes I just did the circular agitation for 10 min. The uneven development is gone and the negatives look pretty good. I'll do some scanning later tonight or tomorrow to see how they look when made into positives.

Thanks again to all who contributed to this thread.

Tony-S · Jun 15, 2010

Thomas Bertilsson said:
You want to invert the tank every time you agitate. That's how you agitate. The center pin rod that you spin the spindle in Paterson tanks is just not a very good solution.

I'm not using a Patterson tank, just a plain old stainless steel tank without the cap (I'm using foil on it).

clayne · Jun 15, 2010

Tony-S said:
I'm not using a Patterson tank, just a plain old stainless steel tank without the cap (I'm using foil on it).

Foil?! Get a cap and invert. It's mandatory .

stevebrot · Jun 15, 2010

Tony-S said:
I'm not using a Patterson tank, just a plain old stainless steel tank without the cap (I'm using foil on it).

You can buy a replacement lid at Freestyle for very little money (LINK).

Steve

Tony-S · Jun 15, 2010

I'll probably get a cap, but I first want to dig through my shed to see if I can find the original. I had all my darkroom gear boxed up for about 12 years when I "left" photography, so I think it's still in there somewhere.

srs5694 · Jun 15, 2010

I've found that the back lens cap for M39 lenses (used on Leica thread mount and some early Soviet SLRs) fits SS tank lids. I used one this way with my first SS tank, which was an eBay purchase sans the fill cap (it had the big main cap). I eventually got a proper cap, of course, but the M39 lens cap is good in a pinch.

TareqPhoto · Jun 16, 2010

Thanks for this thread, until now i didn't get this problem yet, but i should know about it anyway so i can avoid it for any next time just in case.

TareqPhoto · Jun 16, 2010

Also as many threads here was talking about agitation issue here, i still don't know how to agitate my developer once its poured in the tank within the development time.

clayne · Jun 16, 2010

Tareq: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rROBVLNEb3M&feature=related

Processing difficulties

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