Question about Pyrocat-MC in Glycol Developer

[dcfoto1]

I just recently purchased a pyro-mc liquid kit from the formulary and the directions in the kit are a bit hard to follow.

These are my steps:
1)Distilled H2O for 5 mins.
2)Dev. 8 mins at 70 degrees F, using Rollie pan and ortho 25iso.
3)stop1 min with plain distilled H2O
4)TF-4 Fix for 3 mins. 30 secs.
5)Used developer for 2 mins.
6)Final Wash for 20 mins. with running water at 70 degrees F.

I am using the developer at the recommended 1:1:100. A:Bistilled H2O

I didn't see in the directions to use the used developer for 2 mins. after the fix and before the wash, but I am assuming that is what is needed here.

This is where I am going to start my film speed tests to achieve the proper film speed for my R-TLR.

Any advise is much appreciated. Do I have the right steps in 1-6 above or do some things need to be modified???

 

[trexx]

I just did a develop run with the newly acquired MC. I did not do steps 1, 3 or 5. I used BTZS tubes and went from developing to fix, knowing I'd be tossing the fix. The stain is very nice and more pronounced then with HD. I had rated the film at 250 and did the chart time of 9min at 70F. I got very nice negatives but might have been able to do for a bit less time. Need to judge a print first. Need to do a full set of testing but that will be tomorrow too.

 

[JLP]

I have used P-Cat MC for more than two and a half year now and never used step 5 and i don't pre-rinse in disitlled water, just filtered tap water but, depending on the quality of your tap water it may be a good idea to use it.
After step six i soak the film in distiled water with a couple of drops Edwals LFN.

jan

 

[gainer]

That instruction to use the developer after the fix was for PMK and is no longer recommended by Gordon Hutchings.

 

[gainer]

I should have added that step 5 can only increase the overall stain, which will reduce contrast on VC paper and increase overall effective density on graded paper or platinum or palladium papers.

 

[edtbjon]

I've always used a pre-wash of 3-5 minutes in normal (but of course clean) water. Constant agitation (at least for the first minute). The idea is to completly soak the emulsion and to wash out the anti-halation layer. Also, as the film after the pre-wash is filled with water, the developer will take a bit longer to start working as it will replace the water. This in turn will give you a more even start of developement, which is good if the filling of the tank is slow (e.g. the HP CombiPlan for sheet film). I usually add some 20 seconds to the dev.time to "compensate" for the time it takes to replace the water in the film. Last, I don't think you need to time this pre-wash down to the second.
For the record, I nowadays process just about all my film in a Jobo processor, where it's recommended to use a 5 min. prewash. But I've always been using a pre-wash for the last 25 years or so.

As the others have said and explained, step 5 is nowadays considered obselete.

//Björn

 

[dcfoto1]

Thanks for all your very helpful comments and suggestions. They are a big help.