Thank you Sandy King!

I just had a little discussion with another fellow APUG member, and it's clear to me now how much I appreciate what you have done for our photo community. I wish there was some way I could pay you back!

I was flailing around with many developers for a long time, then I tried your Pyrocat HD formula and haven't looked back since. The stuff is great! I've developed TX, TMX, TMY, FP4, APX100, and Delta 3200. I am amazed!

I cannot say thank you enough. I don't care how many times it's been said before, but your efforts really is a benefit to all of us who use your formula.

- Thom

huggyviking said:

I just had a little discussion with another fellow APUG member, and it's clear to me now how much I appreciate what you have done for our photo community. I wish there was some way I could pay you back!

I was flailing around with many developers for a long time, then I tried your Pyrocat HD formula and haven't looked back since. The stuff is great! I've developed TX, TMX, TMY, FP4, APX100, and Delta 3200. I am amazed!

I cannot say thank you enough. I don't care how many times it's been said before, but your efforts really is a benefit to all of us who use your formula.

- Thom

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Thom, I could not agree with you more. I've used Sandy Kings formula with great sucess on 120, 4x5, 8x10 and soon 8x20. With DBI this formula is the best. I too can't say thank you enough.

Stay Focused!

Jim

I would like to join my voice to yours and to make clear all the help and support that Sandy King has given to me and in general to the photo community. Pyrocat-HD and in many other technical procedures suggested by Sandy were essential for my work in the last years.
Sandy advice is always helpful, clear and brilliant and never miss a kind reply to my sometimes (I'm sure ) boring questions.

Thank you, and thank you Sandy !


Manuel Gomes Teixeira

Yes, Yes, Yes. thank you Sandy. Your unstinting help and advice is fantastic. Your Pyrocat-HD with 120 HP5+ is to die for.

so guys what makes these developers so good, how are they better than commercially available products

To answer Ray's question, pyrocat has the abity to control highlights in difficult situations. Due to the stain characteristics, it can be used with U.V. process materials and is simply superior. It is extremely versatile, in that it can be used in differing concentrations for enhanced acutance. At higher dilutions, it is wonderful stuff for minimal agitation and stand development. It gives a clear, sharp image with fully textured shadows and well controlled highlights, the best of both worlds. Thanks Sandy

but nose, i get great results from APX 400 in HC110, or i did, i'm about to go back to HP5 at 200 ISO in LC-29

Of course you can get great results from other developers as well, it is true. What I'm saying to Sandy is a big warm thank you for putting it out there without claiming any of the commercial interests, like Kodak for instance. Nothing wrong in making business either, but what Sandy did was a huge favor to all those who use his formula. I am one of them, and I am convinced I've never tried a developer that better suit my purposes. It's my go to formula, which I end up using over and over again. It's especially useful with the Holga camera I've been using lately because I cannot control exposure, so some frames are way overexposed and this developer significantly tames the ill effects of that.

If you find that some other developer works better for you - great! I don't claim that Pyrocat HD is a magic trick to help everyone. It does work really, really well for me. And I know others love the formula too. Try it and see if it's something you can use.

- Thom

I was using HC110 for years until I was introduced to Pyrocat-HD. I though that I was getting amazing results with using HC110, until I started using Pyrocat-HD. My prints from the new Pyro negatives were MUCH sharper, and I did not believe an 8x10 contact print could get much sharper just by changing developer! They also had a different look tonally. The highlights seemed to have a better richness and glow to them, where my prints from HC110 negatives looked flat.

Thanks Sandy King.

Ryan McIntosh
www.RyanMcIntosh.net

noseoil said:

To answer Ray's question, pyrocat has the abity to control highlights in difficult situations. Due to the stain characteristics, it can be used with U.V. process materials and is simply superior. It is extremely versatile, in that it can be used in differing concentrations for enhanced acutance. At higher dilutions, it is wonderful stuff for minimal agitation and stand development. It gives a clear, sharp image with fully textured shadows and well controlled highlights, the best of both worlds. Thanks Sandy

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Ray, what Tim (noseoil) said. BTW, Pyrocat has been available commercially for over two years(from several different sources). Pyrocat-HD has also been copied.

Sometimes, I think we make all of this much too complicated. Most developer/film combos can be quite effective when tweaked and understood. Pyrocat (in its various forms) combines attributes that make for much easier control of so many aspects of B&W imaging. The great shadow separation brings life back into the deeper areas of the print and its great highlight control and subtle gradations keep that end of things in check, too. So many difficult lighting situations are solved by this behavior. I also like the way it renders skin tones. A big plus for me is that Pyrocat negatives solved the bulk of my scanning problems. The grain masking would, by itself, give nice, smooth scanning behavior but could potentially take away some accutance. In reality, the beautiful edge effects give back some apparent sharpness that negates this effect.

Sandy's patient, generous advice and attention to valid testing/analysis have given photographers a wonderful tool. I credit Pyrocat with re-energizing my darkroom and photography interests and help me to make better use of my limited time to be in the darkroom. All of this praise and appreciation likely makes Sandy squirm a bit but these things need to said and silver imaging owes Sandy a substantial debt for providing new and better tools to work with at a time when this area of photography is threatened by a rapidly changing market.

Well, fellows, thanks for the very generous comments. I really appreciate the kind remarks, though to be fair the popularity of Pyrocat-HD is due as much to the work of others who have experimented with different dilutions and agitation methods as to the formula itself.

I have never claimed that Pyrocat-HD is better than other developers, commercial or otherwise. In fact, Pyrocat-HD itself is a commercial formula, having been offered in kit form for at least five or six years. What I have often stated is that all developers are about 95% alike, but the other 5% includes specific characteristics that may favor a specific film in a specific lighting condition or with a certain subject. For that reason I like to talk about developer characteristics, not whether one formula is superior or inferior to another.

However, there is no question but that Pyrocat-HD definitely works very well, and it is also very economical to use, whether purchased in kit form or mixed from scratch. Also, the considerable experimentation that has been carried out with it by many persons using different dilutions and agitaiton schemes has provided a very large data base of information that can be of potential value to new users.

Sandy

I don't have near the understanding of developers and chemistry that Sandy has but I can assure each of you Pyrocat HD has proven to be the best developer for Semi-Stand and Minimal Agitation methods of developing film.

Once the agitation bugs were worked out I have consistently produced negatives with increased adjancecy effects and been able to control the micro contrast within a negative which was never before possible without the aid of digital manipulation.

Kudos to you Sandy