Two-step film development?

[Jan Brittenson]

Has anyone experimented with two-step development? I was thinking of trying to stand develop APX100 first in extremely dilute Rodinal (1+350?) without any agitation whatsoever, but perhaps with a little sodium sulfate, for say 15 min to develop the shadows. Then give it a water rinse and transfer to Xtol or Microdol-X to develop the full tonal scale. Then another rinse, and over to TF-3. Should I spend time on this -- is it even worth trying?

 

[Eric Rose]

I was thinking of using Rodinal 1:3 for maybe 2 minutes, then put it into a bath of Rodinal at 1:100 for say 30 min's. These are just some numbers I spit balled but will be the starting place.

Should be interesting to compare results. The film I will be using is APX 100 in 4x5. I'll probably cut the sheets into thirds and tray develop. This way I can try different times with the same subject matter and not waste, hopefully, to much film.

If anyone has done this before please let me know what you came up with.

Thanks,

Eric

 

[john_s]

It sounds promising. But the downside is a bizarre number of possible combinations! It's hard enough with single developer!

Good luck, and please let us know.

incidentally, i suppose you mean "sulfite"