[Leica] B&W developers

Thu Jun 15 01:50:10 PDT 2017

If the APUG people do it must be good. Can they have me the developing times for Tri X at iso 50, 100, 200, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400?
I think they can. It’s good to know where I can go for that stuff.

A reason why replenishment of any kind went so thoroughly out long ago is you are pouring silver back into the bottle from the film you just developed. Some of the silver goes into solution during development. (a lot during fixing) Every time you pour it back into that gallon bottle that developer has a higher concentration of silver in it… as in effect part of the formula.
You can see it after a few months plating itself back onto the inside of your glass one gallon developer bottle which for most people was D76. It looks just like silver and was. That silver gets etched back onto your next roll of film. Making for a kind of soft odd double grain and blocked up highlights found on bad amateur prints from days gone by.
But that’s common knowledge to any serious darkroom worker they teach you that in any photo class before they take attendance.
Its generally the first mistake photographers learn to stop making if they ever make it at all.
I made it. When I was 13 maybe 12.
I used Acufine and Acufine replenisher my first several years in my Northfield Illinois darkroom starting at around age 13 in 1964. I thought I was so smart saving all that money I made mowing lawns on all sides of my house!
I wasn’t getting a lot of advice from a lot of in the loop people I was figuring out all by myself with the help of some archaic library books mainly written in the 40’s. “Lootens on Printing”.
I didn’t realize the Acufine I was using was just a few miles north of my North Shore Chicago darkroom. Ethol Chemicals Vernon Hills IL
So, I was using the local brew. Tri x at 800 with straight replenished Acufine. …was my first couple of hundred rolls of film for a few years.
Here’s one from the South side of Chicago in 1968.
Voigtländer Vito BL with Color-Skopar 2.8 lens. Guess-to-matic focusing.
http://rabinergroup.com/ImagePages/Motherchildindoorpage.html

After a few years, I ascertained that everyone was using it 1:1 or 1:2 and throwing it away afterwards it was worth the money as the results were hugely better.
I tried it and they were right.  It’s also common knowledge you want to dilute your developer as high as you possibly can. 
Even non-replished you’d never ever use it straight.
I’ve knew a lot of people for a lot of years doing darkroom work they’d just laugh when you brought up replenishment and using developer straight. It’s been decades since I’ve heard of any one still doing that.
Partly became I don’t think they still even made the replenisher any more you’d have to find the formula and mix it up yourself.

-- 

Mark William Rabiner
Photographer

On 6/15/17, 3:10 AM, "LUG on behalf of Christopher Crawford" <lug-bounces+mark=rabinergroup.com at leica-users.org on behalf of chris at chriscrawfordphoto.com> wrote:

    You’d be surprised how many guys on APUG and other photo forms I frequent
    who are into reusing developers and using replenishers. It SHOULD be a
    one-shot world, but some still haven’t gotten the memo yet.

    -- 
    Chris Crawford
    Fine Art Photography
    Fort Wayne, Indiana
    260-437-8990

    http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com  My portfolio

    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Christopher-Crawford/48229272798
    Become a fan on Facebook

    On 6/15/17, 3:06 AM, "LUG on behalf of Mark Rabiner"
    <lug-bounces+chris=chriscrawfordphoto.com at leica-users.org on behalf of
    mark at rabinergroup.com> wrote:

    >Photographers stopped pouring their developers back into the jar in 1975.
    >It’s been a one shot world for a very long time.
    >-- 
    >
    >Mark William Rabiner
    >Photographer
    >
    >On 6/14/17, 6:05 AM, "LUG on behalf of Gerry Walden"
    ><lug-bounces+mark=rabinergroup.com at leica-users.org on behalf of
    >gwpics at me.com> wrote:
    >
    >    I don’t want to start and wars here, and I know this is a minefield
    >in which I will get a thousand and one answers, but is there any
    >consensus of opinion these days on a one-shot b&w developer?
    >    
    >    Insanely I am thinking of doing my own processing of film again.
    >    
    >    Gerry
    >    
    >    Gerry Walden LRPS
    >    www.gwpics.com
    >    +44 (0)23 8046 3076 or
    >    +44 (0)797 287 7932
    >    
    >    
    >    
    >    
    >    
    >    
    >    
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