Tetenal Neopress HC

mcgrattan · May 11, 2007

I've just taken advantage of the Tetenal UK offer and ordered a couple of £1 bottles of Neopress HC.

Anyone had any experience of using it? Developing times as listed on the Massive Dev Chart look shorter than I am used to with other developers.

Steve Smith · May 11, 2007

That sounded like such a good offer so I have just ordered myself a couple of bottles too!

Likewise, I would be interested in hearing other people's experience of it.

The times are probably short because it is called a rapid developer!

Steve.

mcgrattan · May 11, 2007

I've more or less settled on Adox ADX for Fuji films -- it works so well for Neopan 400 and Acros -- but I've not been happy with it for faster films or with Ilford films (in general), so I'm hoping Neopress will do the job.

I imagine I'll need to go for more regular agitation with those short times, I usually just do a couple of inversions at the start of each minute.

Steve Smith · May 11, 2007

I have been happy using Ilford LC-29 for everything but last week I bought some Rodinal and PMK Pyro to try out. At £1 a bottle, Neopress looks like it might be worth trying too. Or even just to keep in the back of the cupboard for when I run out of everything else.

I did notice that it was one of their clearance items though. Does this mean that it has been discontinued?

Steve.

mcgrattan · May 11, 2007

They are also still selling it at full price. I assume that it's a batch that's nearing its 'sell by' date.

I've tried various developers - I have some R09 (a rodinal clone), some Ilfosol and Adox ADX in the house and have used a few others.

I like the Adox developer very much but it only seems right for some films. I've ran out of DD-X (which I use for faster films) so am curious to see if the Neopress will do the job instead. I much prefer liquid developers to powdered ones so if the Neopress works I'd be happy to pay full price.

skahde · May 13, 2007

mcgrattan said:
I much prefer liquid developers to powdered ones so if the Neopress works I'd be happy to pay full price.

For whatever it maybe worth: If you liked a your film of choice developed in HC110 you will probably find Neopress also works for you.

best

Stefan

mcgrattan · May 16, 2007

The Neopress arrived, however, unfortunately I notice that the Tetenal booklet that comes with it lists time for every (Tetenal) developer for constant agitation (every 3 seconds) and intermittent agitation (every minute) as well as at gamma 0.55 and gamma 0.7 except Neopress where they only give times for constant agitation.

I'll be using it in a small tank (by hand) and wondered if anyone had any experience doing this and which times to use? Use the 0.7 times plus a little bit for intermittent agitation? Agitate every 20 or 30 seconds?

Any ideas?

Matt

Steve Smith · May 16, 2007

Mine arrived yesterday too. I was going to use a time half way between 0.55 and 0.7 gamma.

I was thinking about using my normal agitation of about ten seconds per minute but since the development times are short, perhaps five seconds of agitation per 30 seconds would be more realistic.

As we have both now got two litres of this stuff to play with, I'm sure a bit of experimentation and information sharing is in order.

Steve.

mcgrattan · May 16, 2007

I found one reference to someone elses times for Neopress on the rangefinder forum site. The guy was using 7 min, I think, as his time for HP5 with agitation once every 20 seconds.

Given the times in the packaging are for constant agitation I thought I'd need to probably need to go a little longer even than the 0.7 times with my own agitation -- usually 3 gentle inversions at the start of each minute.

Tetenal have only sent me 1 litre (by mistake) I need to find out what happened to the 2nd litre.

However, as soon as I do some developing I'll share any information here!

mcgrattan · May 18, 2007

Well, I tried a roll of Delta 3200, which I developed for 6 minutes at a dilution of 1:15 -- taking the 6400 time (as I usually would for Delta 3200 exposed at 3200) and adding 25% for the intermittent rather than continuous agitation.

The tonality of the negs is fine, but they are really grainy. With a blocky, unpleasant grain that almost looks like digital noise. So I think I've overdeveloped them quite a bit.

John Bragg · May 18, 2007

I would be tempted to use dilutions and times for HC-110 as an experiment, since this dev is also highly concentrated. The 1:15 would be the equivalent of Kodak HC-110 dilution A, so extrapolating this, 1:31 should equate to dilution B and 1:63 dilution H. Worth a try with reduced agitation....

Regards, John.

mcgrattan · May 18, 2007

Looking at the couple of times I found (on the rangefinder forum) for someone using it at 1:31 they do seem pretty close to the times for HC-110 dilution B.

Thanks very much, that might be a very useful tip.

Steve Smith · May 19, 2007

John Bragg said:
I would be tempted to use dilutions and times for HC-110 as an experiment.

I was thinking this too. I think the HC in the title may be a clue.

I have not done any comparisons of times for various films yet but I don't have anything better to do today!

Steve.

Steve Smith · May 19, 2007

I have oompared the Tetenal times to the times for HC-110 on the Massive Development Chart and whilst there are many which are similar, quite a few are different in either direction.

I think it's just a case of more experimentation!

Steve.

mcgrattan · May 19, 2007

Yes, however, the massive dev chart times look to be the constant agitation times from the booklet that accompanies the developer. So I'm not sure how accurately those times will translate.

John Bragg · May 19, 2007

Steve Smith said:
I have oompared the Tetenal times to the times for HC-110 on the Massive Development Chart and whilst there are many which are similar, quite a few are different in either direction.

I think it's just a case of more experimentation!

Steve.

Hi Steve,
Dont forget that the massive dev chart is a compilation of actual user times as well as the manufacturers times. There can be some disparity due to water and thermometer variance.

Regards,John.

Tetenal Neopress HC

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