Tanol

Hi there

I'm looking for a staining - high compensating developer with great sharpness and definition. The main purpose is to handle high to very high contrast scenes outdoors with the overall sharpness and grain that perceptol gives. Due the remote nature of my subjects, carrying weight is limited by stamina I'll be using only rollfilm, either 35mm or MF.

I've heard that Tanol should work it out, even DiXactol, thinking in something with more acutance than traditional Pyro developers. Any ideas or recommendations anyone?

Thanks in advance.

Pyrocat-hd, or pyrocat-p.

vet173 said:

Pyrocat-hd, or pyrocat-p.

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Yes, or Pyrocat-M

If it starts with Pyrocat I am for it. If it starts with Rodin.. Oh I guess I best not finish my thought.

Muihlinn said:

I've heard that Tanol should work it

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Tanol is quite good and provides sharp negatives with excellent tonality. Its also VERY inexpensive. I can wholeheartedly recommend it. Its main downside is that its not suitable to machine processing--- save perhaps the semi-automatic Heiland TAS.
He's also come out with a new variation called "Tanol Speed" which is a bit speed enhancing with some emulsions, slightly different strain and, most significantly, is said to be also suitable to rotary processing. I've, however, yet to give it a spin.

I can't find anything wrong with Pyrocat MC, but maybe I'm prejudiced.

gainer said:

I can't find anything wrong with Pyrocat MC, but maybe I'm prejudiced.

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Pat: I just processed a roll of TMAX 400 TMY in Pyrocat MC. The acutance is high (African Violets, stamens, pistils, cilia, etc.)! The fog level is very low (I still need to run the film through my densitometer). The image stain looks great as well.

By the way, my "A" concentrate is light yellow in color. When I mixed the working developer ,its color was a very pale yellow color (almost clear). After sitting (and oxidizing) for about 20 minutes, the unused excess of the working deveolper solution (about 30-40ml) had turned a pale lavender color.

After developing the film the developer was a darker blue/lavender color.

BTW, (I'm using Potassium Carbonate in the "B" solution).

Also Pat, many thanks to you and Sandy for creating this version of Pyrocat. It's a winner, and it's fast and easy to mix.

Nothing wrong Gainer, only that I cannot mix-it for myself for a while until I'm able to sort a proper place.

I, too, can recommend Tanol. It works very well for me, especially in the lower speed ranges. A great plus is that you can trust the specified development times. Only disadvantage is that development times are quite long.

There are several advantages with Pyrocat.

1. The Pyrocat formulae are in the public domain (they are not proprietary).
2. There are several commercial sources for pre-mixed Pyrocat in the USA and Europe.
3. There is an enormous amount of sensitometric and development time/process data available for many different sheet films and roll films developed in Pyrocat.

I don't feel right having my name on Pyrocat MC, like Gainer-King, and King Gainer doesn't sound right either. It often happens that a stroke of luck helps a lot. I was looking for ways to put as many different developing agents as possible into organic solvents. In olden times, we tried lots of tricks to make the developing agents soluble in water, which is why we have hydrosulfates and hydrochlorides. I wasn't having much luck with home methods of dissolving a sulfite in glycol or TEA. It occurred to me that since ascorbic acid is an antioxidant, it might work. What could it hurt to try? If it is dissolved in a solvent that renders it unnecessary as a preservative, the only need for the sulfite is for the synergism between metol and catechol.

I still don't have a real theory about how a bit of ascorbate can take the place of a bit of sulfite in promoting the metol - catechol synergism, and it may in fact be a different mechanism. Finely divided metallic silver silver is apparently a catalyst for development, and metol and ascorbate are synergistic without sulfite, thus providing finely divided silver particles. So are phenidone and ascorbate, but metol has some characteristics that phenidone has not.

Why does it work? This is one of those two part questions. "Why?" and "Does it work?" I don't know the answer to the first one, but the answer to the second one is "Yes." For all I know, in the process of finding a better way to store all the necessary ingredients of Pyrocat M in an organic solvent for better keeping, I may have hit a space warp. Some of my friends have thought me a bit warped.

Perhaps they did Patrick but there is space in my heart for you.

One thing you will notice about the Pyrocat MC is in fact the tanning of the image, which is said to be as important to sharpness as anything. All three of the active elements contribute at least somewhat to the formation of the relief image, catechol being the strongest, but metol and ascorbates helping too. The refraction in the gelatin layer is what causes the sharpening appearance in printing.

Very interesting, never thought that refraction will have anything to do with sharpness.

I did not mean to say that tanning is THE cause of apparent sharpness, but that it appears to be a contributing factor.