Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/06/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On 6/29/04 4:11 PM, "Wade Heninger" <lists@heninger.org> wrote: > >> I've read that it is a very active developer. Thus developing times can be >> very short, making it easy to overdevelop negatives. > > Not as short as acufine, and never had issues. I tried all kinds of > experimenting with dilutions and times. All too contrasty. > > So I didn't continue because Xtol, FG7, Acufine all work great. > HC100 is notorious among the local people I know here in Portland over the decades. A consensus on the darkroom newsgroups on the big wide internet I'm not sure of but I kind of get the vibe they agree for the most part. It doesn't look much at all like d76 and is a Phenidone developer and in a number of other ways not at all like it as a formula. I used it for a while because the word was out Ansel used it. He was still alive then. But how he got the results he (or his assistant got for him) got my pals and I never could figure out. He supposedly diluted it way beyond dilution B. I could never get that to work for me at all I always got uneven development. Mottled negs. Calico. Same as my pals. We were all Calicos then. We all went back to d76 and our work shot up in quality as a result. Way back then. Early 80's. Ansel died I think in 84. I agree that Fg7 and Acufine and of course Xtol are great developers. When used at the right dilution. But to use a different developer with every roll of film as it seems someone is doing is not going to make for any kind of results or knowledge. I'd use a certain developer for a few months playing around with different dilutions. Mark Rabiner Photography Portland Oregon http://rabinergroup.com/