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thornton two bath developer question

steveb533

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Hi,
the directions I found on this process weren't very clear on the agitation/inversion of bath B. Does anyone have recommendations on this?

I have developed one roll, my first ever, using this style. One side of the roll developed great but the inner side (on the coil) was seriously underdeveloped. Scanned good though.
I only inverted it once during the process so Im wondering if that might be the problem. Also I filled the tank to the brim, if that makes a difference.
Thanks in advance.

Steve
 

davekarp

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For sheet film, I agitate for the first 30 seconds, then 10 seconds per minute for the remainder.
 
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steveb533

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Thanks a lot guys.
Has anyone tried pushing film with this developer by either changing the proportions of bath b or extending the developing time? I am looking to push tri-x 400 to iso 3200. Not sure if I can do it with this one or not.

Steve
 

Jeff Bannow

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I've never tried pushing in this developer. I can tell you that after testing, I found I need to expose HP5+ at 200 iso instead of 400 iso in Thornton's in order to get proper shadow detail. I had to do the same in D76 as well.

If you try pushing, please report back. I'm curious to see the results.
 

Usagi

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I guess that agitation does not influence much as the developer is D-23 variant and I have seen identical result with D-23 (2-bath) with rotary and manual agitation.

Thornton's D-23 variant is one of my favorite, but I don't think that it will work with a push develpment.

Tetenal's Emofin is better option for that. Atleast it will give better shadow details, however I haven't done any real speed tests. Just compared two sheets of 4x5 film with same subject but one developed with Emofin and another with Thornton's 2-bath.
The difference is visible, but is it half of an stop or more, I can't tell.