Stand development

Alex Hawley · Aug 8, 2004

Donald Miller said:
Ron, I hope that you won't mind my reply to your question. My development procedures with Efke PL 100 are as follows.

1. Five minute presoak
2. One minute agitation followed by no agitation then 15 second agitation at one third and two thirds of total development time.
3. 30 second stop bath at 1/4 of normal dilution (acetic acid)
4. Four minute fix
5. twenty minute wash consisting of 5 dumps and refills.

I use BTZS type tubes...the same ones that Francesco uses...I believe... since I built them for him.

My times for Grade two Azo (1.65 density range) are as follows:

SBR 7 ---26 minutes
SBR 6 ---38 minutes
SBR 5 ---50 minutes

My times for enlarging on VC materials (condensor enlarger 1.15 DR) are as follows:
SBR 7 ---16 minutes
SBR 6 ---28 minutes
SBR 5 ---38 minutes

Hope that this helps. Good luck

Donald Miller

Don, Francesco, Sandy, et al,

How did you work out your development times? Hopefully not a whole bunch of trial and error. I will be doing this soon, but without the aid of densitometer.

Francesco · Aug 8, 2004

Not much trial and error at all Alex. I already have my times using tubes and continuous agitation. I simply increased the times by 30%, 100%, 200% and 300%. Made 4 negatives of one scene of SBR 7 and another of SBR 10. Developed both to the 4 different adjusted times. Printed all of them on G2 AZO. Selected the time that works and adjust the rest of my times accordingly. The more I use minimal agitation the better the tweaking of the times got. Did not take me long at all (or that many negatives) to settle on a range of times. I use a dilution of 1:1:120 and my times are for negatives destined for AZO printing (they are quite dense).

Alex Hawley · Aug 8, 2004

Thanks Francesco. Looks like something I can handle.

Donald Miller · Aug 8, 2004

Alex,

I worked up my development times by tailoring the negatives to the exposure scale of Azo paper. I found that grade two Azo will handle a density range of 1.65 and grade three Azo will handle a density range of 1.35.

I determined this by testing the paper with a reflection densitometer and by testing the negatives with a transmission densitometer.

The times that I have stated above will provide those negative densities if the same temperature, dilution, and agitation procedure are adhered to.

My dilution is 1-1-150 and the temperature is 70 degrees.

Good luck

photomc · Aug 8, 2004

roy said:
At least you have something to go on if you wish to experiment more. I have to say that my Rodinal started dark brown and the colour only improved with dilution !

Roy, how old was the rodinal you used and how much concentrate did you use? The bottle I'm using now was just opened a week ago and only used 10ml, so it was quite dilute. Have noticed the older the stock, then the browner the working developer is.

Went back and re-shoot the image in the technical gallery using 4x5 then stand development, will post something when I get it. Since the water temp was around 75 F, went with 20 minutes in Rodinal 1:100, very minimal agitation in using tray development. The negatives still have good shadow/highlight details - film was FP4+ rated at 64.

photomc · Aug 8, 2004

titrisol said:
Nice photo, is the "halo" around the church something you expected?
It seesm to me that the clouds around it are much brighter than the rest.

titrisol, Thanks - no the "halo" is actually just a bad example of burning the sky in, seems nice unless you consider the bad job I did....then..well have to work on it.

Alex Hawley · Aug 8, 2004

Thanks Don, Thanks Francesco. This has been a good concise thread.

roy · Aug 9, 2004

photomc said:
Roy, how old was the rodinal you used and how much concentrate did you use?

I had a note on the bottle that it was started (opened) in June 1997. I suppose at that time I was getting caught up in the PMK/Dizactol 'movement' and put the Rodinal to one side while I tried these other devs. There came a time when I was reluctant to use the Rodinal because of its age and the risk of losing a film I wanted to keep. The series of postings on APUG at the time and the fact that I had a 'not quite so old' FP4+ film just out of the camera a few months ago, 'inspired' me to try it out. At the current rate of usage, it will be many years before I finish the bottle, although I have since used it again, as at 1:100 I am only using 3 or 5 ml of concentrate depending on whether it is being used for a 35mm or 120 film.

Stand development

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