Understanding the reusability factor of BW chemistry

f/Alex · Jul 27, 2024

snusmumriken said:
Stop bath keeps well after dilution

I'm from the camp that neglects to use Stop, maybe it ruins my photos, but it keeps prices down and reduces the amount of chemicals I need to keep track of. I often just wash my film a few times between developer and fix. (I will wash my film with salt water, and then fresh water, generally after the developer and the fixer, I read somewhere that military photographs and prints developed aboard navy ships using salt water for most washes except the final wash lasted longer than ones made by their army counterparts)

fabulousrice said:
I'm definitely not married to the FX-39 - I just like that it costs $9 and it's a one-bottle developper.
Do you use the Barry Thornton dev? How long is it for each bath? Does it also come with a fixing step?

Honestly, any liquid developer is going to serve you fairly well. There definitely is differences, but I ain't entirely sure on them. I moved away from Sprint (despite getting it for free from my uni's darkroom) around the same time I started shooting large format (so really the last few months to half a year?). Financially, $50 for pyrocat 1L for 10L working solution has been pretty decent for me so far. Mostly because I ain't even through my second order of it. Granted, it's a weird developer that does weird developer things. And I stand develop. so, i guess consider my opinions invalid.

I've heard good things about xtol, and supposedly it's rather non-toxic for a developer?

Andrew O'Neill · Jul 27, 2024

snusmumriken said:
I use 4+4min for FP4 and 5+5 min for HP5+, all at 23deg C, or adjusted for any variation in temperature. This suits my enlarger and printing style, but it’s a fair starting point. I use a plain water rinse rather than stop, but either works.

I as well use 5+5 for HP5.

Milpool · Jul 27, 2024

It is true sea water (assuming it is not polluted) - and tap water for that matter generally make for more efficient washing than purified or distilled water due to the salt/ionic content.

XTOL is an excellent developer - essentially the first and last solvent developer to best the D-76 type (although by a tiny margin). Since it does not contain hydroquinone it is generally considered to be less toxic than PQ developers - however toxicity is not always a well defined thing. As ever, “the dose makes the poison”, though some generalizations work ok - for example pyrocat contains catechol which is relatively nasty compared with anything in XTOL. On the other hand XTOL contains borate which can be considered environmentally unfriendly. Etc. The “state of the art”, as it were, is probably the Adox/Fotoimpex clone of XTOL which is intended to replicate the working characteristics of the already relatively benign XTOL but with a non-borate alkali/buffer.

f/Alex said:
I'm from the camp that neglects to use Stop, maybe it ruins my photos, but it keeps prices down and reduces the amount of chemicals I need to keep track of. I often just wash my film a few times between developer and fix. (I will wash my film with salt water, and then fresh water, generally after the developer and the fixer, I read somewhere that military photographs and prints developed aboard navy ships using salt water for most washes except the final wash lasted longer than ones made by their army counterparts)

Honestly, any liquid developer is going to serve you fairly well. There definitely is differences, but I ain't entirely sure on them. I moved away from Sprint (despite getting it for free from my uni's darkroom) around the same time I started shooting large format (so really the last few months to half a year?). Financially, $50 for pyrocat 1L for 10L working solution has been pretty decent for me so far. Mostly because I ain't even through my second order of it. Granted, it's a weird developer that does weird developer things. And I stand develop. so, i guess consider my opinions invalid.

I've heard good things about xtol, and supposedly it's rather non-toxic for a developer?

Understanding the reusability factor of BW chemistry

f/Alex

Andrew O'Neill

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Milpool

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