I've been shooting more and more sheet film which I develop one or two at a time in trays, having no better method. I also develop often, nearly every day, at least a sheet or two.
This requires a lot of chemistry, so I abandoned D76 used one-shot, as using a half-liter or more of stock just to develop a sheet or two was getting too wasteful. I use replenished D23 for roll films, so I started using that in trays. But I'm starting to think that using it to develop sheets all the time is asking for contamination of my developer, plus oxidation as developer sits out in trays for a long time sometimes as I develop multiple sheets, or run out to shoot something and come back and develop. So I feel this tray use is abusing my mainstay liter of D23, which ordinarily lasts me 6 months or more. I can use D23 one-shot, but I'm not sure it would be extremely cheap to do so; perhaps if I diluted it.
I think maybe I should get HC110 and just mix up enough for one tray-session with a syringe every time, then dump it. I think this would end up being fairly economical since HC-110 is so cheap. I've had a hankering to try Rodinal though, for the magical sharpness and pushing reputation it has. Do you use it just like HC110, one-shot? Is it cheap enough to spend a half liter or more of working solution to develop one sheet of film and then toss? Oh, and where the heck do you get it?
This requires a lot of chemistry, so I abandoned D76 used one-shot, as using a half-liter or more of stock just to develop a sheet or two was getting too wasteful. I use replenished D23 for roll films, so I started using that in trays. But I'm starting to think that using it to develop sheets all the time is asking for contamination of my developer, plus oxidation as developer sits out in trays for a long time sometimes as I develop multiple sheets, or run out to shoot something and come back and develop. So I feel this tray use is abusing my mainstay liter of D23, which ordinarily lasts me 6 months or more. I can use D23 one-shot, but I'm not sure it would be extremely cheap to do so; perhaps if I diluted it.
I think maybe I should get HC110 and just mix up enough for one tray-session with a syringe every time, then dump it. I think this would end up being fairly economical since HC-110 is so cheap. I've had a hankering to try Rodinal though, for the magical sharpness and pushing reputation it has. Do you use it just like HC110, one-shot? Is it cheap enough to spend a half liter or more of working solution to develop one sheet of film and then toss? Oh, and where the heck do you get it?
