Pyrocat HD (glycol) and HP5+, and FP4+ with extreme minimal agitation

[Andrew Moxom]

After trying out TMY with Pyrocat HD 1:1:100 using extreme minimal agitation for a 16 min dev time as recommended by Sandy King. I am extremely pleased with the results I am getting, and will settle on this as my standard. There is not much info in extreme minimal agitation times that I can see during my searches. Anyone have any ideas?

However, now I want to expand my film choices so I have options should availability of one type be a problem. I want to use the same developer, and dilution if possible, and wanted to know a dev time starting point for HP5+, FP4+ with 1:1:100 and extreme minimal agitation.

I am not sure if rating the FP4 at 80 and HP5 @ 200 will gain me anything like some folks do? I thought Pyrocat actually gives you a gain in film speed. So would rating the films at their nominal ISO rating be correct, or at a faster speed?

I want negs that will be enlarged on a dichroic head enlarger and printed onto VC paper. Hopefully someone will have some starting times for me anyway? Thanks

 

[JLP]

Hi Andrew,
I use Pyrocat MC which i don't think is much different than the HD in regards to time. I have found the time for TMY being the same as for HP5+
Develop for condenser head so my times are a little longer, 18 minutes at 20C with 1 minute initial agitation and then 10 seconds every 5 minutes works well. Rate both film at 320 and 250 depending on the lighting.
Hope this will give you a starting time.


jan

 

[Tom Hoskinson]

Hi Andrew,
I use Pyrocat MC which i don't think is much different than the HD in regards to time. I have found the time for TMY being the same as for HP5+
Develop for condenser head so my times are a little longer, 18 minutes at 20C with 1 minute initial agitation and then 10 seconds every 5 minutes works well. Rate both film at 320 and 250 depending on the lighting.
Hope this will give you a starting time.


jan

That's in good agreement with my experience, Jan.

 

[ann]

I use HP5+ with 1:1:100 agaitate every 3 minutes using 17 minutes for a N development time. The film is rated at an EI of 200

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

For FP4+ I've used 45 minutes stand development with the film rated at EI100. Then I vary the concentration of the developer depending on how I want to treat contrast. Building contrast, I use 1.5+1.5+100. Reducing it, I use 1+1+150. Everything at 70*F.

It works for me, but I have a camera with some shutter lag, so do your testing.

- Thomas

 

[Andrew Moxom]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

 

[Andrew Moxom]

Just to follow up, I souped some HP5+ in Pyrocat HD today along with some Neopan 400 with dilution 1:1:100 for 14 minutes @ 72deg F all in the same tank. I agitated constantly for the first two minutes, then again for 10 seconds at 9 minutes, 6 minutes, and 3 minutes. I bracketed exposure to see if I needed to use box speed, or rate film at the lower ISO. My findings were that box speed gave the best all round detail, but the denser negs of the lower speed rated frames were also good and would likely print well. No blocking up of highlights or anything like that. I use a diffuser/dichroic head so the additional contrast is useful to me. It maybe that just backing off development time by about 2 minutes at the half speed rating would give a good compromise for really contrasty scenes. So there is plenty of latitude to mess with.

All negs came out very crisp and look like they will print well on VC paper. I think I have found my standard dev time and film combination to cover Neopan and HP5+ should one of them be unavailable when I buy film.

 

[gainer]

Hi Andrew,
I use Pyrocat MC which i don't think is much different than the HD in regards to time. I have found the time for TMY being the same as for HP5+
Develop for condenser head so my times are a little longer, 18 minutes at 20C with 1 minute initial agitation and then 10 seconds every 5 minutes works well. Rate both film at 320 and 250 depending on the lighting.
Hope this will give you a starting time.


jan

Why does your condenser head require more contrast than the diffusion head?