Replenishing regular T-MAX Developer

The directions for regular T-MAX "Developer" and "Developer and Replenisher" are in the same document and because I did not take sufficient care when reading those directions, I have been replenishing regular T-MAX Developer for the last 4-5 rolls or so. I have been doing it at the rate of 45ml/roll per the instructions for Developer and Replenisher.

Note, this has been done using only T-MAX developer, not mixing the 2.

The directions for Developer are silent on this issue. Is it alright for me to continue this or should I throw it out and start over?

As long as it's at the same dilution, it should be good... I replenish TMAX dev mixed 1:4 with just more of the same... I never use the specific T-MAX replenisher for this.

In the following document

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/j86/j86.pdf

Pages 1-8 pertain to Kodak T-Max RS Developer.

Pages 9-12 cover Kodak T-Max Professional Developer.

So far as I can see Kodak T-Max Professional Developer isn’t intended for replenishment. It’s unlikely that you’ve hurt your film by doing so with the same developer concentrate, but it really isn’t recommended by Kodak.

It might be that if you continue to replenish the same original batch, the reaction products might eventually become concentrated enough to cause problems, but I don’t know. There must be some reason that the Kodak data doesn’t recommend this.

Kodak T-Max Professional Developer has a stated capacity of 48 rolls or 3840 square inches of film per gallon at working strength. This capacity is obtained by reusing the developer according to the following schedule for hand tank use (note the warning about push processing):

Develop the first 1/3 of capacity at normal time N for the particular film and temperature in the chart given in the above document.

Develop the second 1/3 of capacity at N + 1 minute.

Develop the last 1/3 of capacity at N + 2 minutes and then discard the exhausted developer.

For example, to develop 6 rolls of 135-36 T-Max 100 film in a Jobo 1520 2-reel drum (stated inversion volume 485ml) at 20C we’d develop

Rolls 1 and 2 at 8 minutes

Rolls 3 and 4 at 9 minutes

Rolls 5 and 6 at 10 minutes and discard the exhausted developer.

Note: 6 rolls require 473ml of working strength developer, but we need 485ml to satisfy the volume requirements of the Jobo 1520 tank.

pbromaghin said:

The directions for regular T-MAX "Developer" and "Developer and Replenisher" are in the same document and because I did not take sufficient care when reading those directions, I have been replenishing regular T-MAX Developer for the last 4-5 rolls or so. I have been doing it at the rate of 45ml/roll per the instructions for Developer and Replenisher.

Note, this has been done using only T-MAX developer, not mixing the 2.

The directions for Developer are silent on this issue. Is it alright for me to continue this or should I throw it out and start over?

Click to expand...

The 45ml seem low, by my way of thinking. The capacity of one gallon is 48 8x10 equiv. films. This is about 80ml per film. This would be close to the rate to replenish the working solution.

If the negative are ok I'd keep using but up the rate some

Ian C said:

In the following document

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/j86/j86.pdf

Pages 1-8 pertain to Kodak T-Max RS Developer.

Pages 9-12 cover Kodak T-Max Professional Developer.

Click to expand...

Yup. That's the document I've been misreading.

Ian C said:

It might be that if you continue to replenish the same original batch, the reaction products might eventually become concentrated enough to cause problems, but I don’t know. There must be some reason that the Kodak data doesn’t recommend this.

Click to expand...

The buildup of byproducts, that's my concern. The last 2 rolls came out pretty well, so it would probably be best to do a few more, following the increasing time schedule and then just start over.

Boy, since deciding to get serious about this hobby I have really learned a lot about making mistakes.

Thanks to all of you for your advice.

IIRC ...

The essential difference between regular developer and developer replenisher is discussed in this post in the "Replenishing HC-110" thread from Gerald Koch:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Now HC-110 used to have it's own special purpose replenisher, whereas T-MAX RS developer can serve as its own replenisher. From that I infer that one major difference between T-MAX developer and T-MAX RS developer is that T-MAX developer has more of the bromides and other things in it that tend to build up as film is processed through it. So I would guess that if you try to use what you have in a replenishment regime, it will not be consistent.

You haven't however, run much film through this yet. So I'd suggest that for this developer, just use it one shot until it is used up. If you then switch to a replenishment regime with T-MAX RS developer, you will have to re-calibrate a bit, but otherwise won't have lost much.

MattKing said:

IIRC ...
You haven't however, run much film through this yet. So I'd suggest that for this developer, just use it one shot until it is used up. If you then switch to a replenishment regime with T-MAX RS developer, you will have to re-calibrate a bit, but otherwise won't have lost much.

Click to expand...

Right. I was getting sick of throwing this stuff out, so I started replenishing and just did it all wrong. I just opened a new bottle of regular developer. When that's gone I'll be buying "developer and replenisher".

We all learn from our mistakes, it is really the best teacher.

Andrew Moxom said:

As long as it's at the same dilution, it should be good... I replenish TMAX dev mixed 1:4 with just more of the same... I never use the specific T-MAX replenisher for this.

Click to expand...

Andrew's results speak for themselves. He's been replenishing TMax for a good long time now with a very stable and predictable outcome. It works JUST FINE to do it the way he's doing it; you don't have to use a dedicated replenishing solution.