Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/07/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Bill Harting asked: >Malcolm, in your (timely) exchange with Tom Finnegan about split D23 do I >understand you to say that for tab grain films Anchell and Troop suggest 35 >gram/liter sulfite and you use 5-10 grams? (instead of 100 grams/liter in >the Ansel Adams formula I have been using for TriX); and that similarly you >have been testing using 5-6 grams Kodalk/liter instead of the 15 in the >recipe I have been using? This would be a significant change in what i have >been doing. Bill, I use 5-10 g/litre sulphite in the second bath as a preservative (maybe? thoughts anyone?). A&T's recommendation was, as I recall, for a _maximum_ of 35 g/litre. My second-bath times are longer than most recommendations. This all started when I first tried Resofine 2-B, a D-23 type devised by Ron Spillman. This has about 7.5 g Metol and 100 g sulphite in the first bath and a small amount of borax in the second (I think). Spillman's recommendations are for 4 to 5 minutes in the first bath and up to 9 minutes in the second. I had some difficulty believing that there was any point in leaving the film in the second bath for so long, but liked the results with HP5+ exposed at 800 enough to begin the experiments. So, I'm trying much longer times in the second bath when I use a D-23 type first bath (diluted for tab films, neat for conventional films). Hence the small amount of sulphite as preservative only, the low amount of alkali (low to reduce the likelihood of fogging) and the 30 g of salt to reduce swelling by making up for the low overall concentration. I still don't see how such tiny amounts of developing agent can work after a few agitation cycles in the second bath, and am surprised that it does work. So far only APX400 has responded badly to nine minutes in the second bath (high fog level), but I am still experimenting. My experiments with XTOL began at 1+2 dilution with Delta 400 and TMY, now I'm trying 1+3 and 1+4. I've used four minutes in the second bath as a starting point for these tests. Mark is way ahead of me on this - no surprises there! All my negs get scanned - I am taking some time to learn how this places different demands on the negs in comparison with conventional printing. This is one of the reasons that I have diverted from the True Path of 'APX400 in Rodinal and just be concerned with the image itself'. A friend once told me that there were two types of fluid dynamicist: The Theoretical - who believes her/his results, but nobody else does. The Experimental - everybody else believes her/his results, but she/he doesn't. Best Wishes, Malcolm The LUG must be sleeping. No-one has asked Erwin to provide exact details of the dilapidated factory he did his film tests in. Did it have an asbestos roof? If so, were there holes in it? How much dust was on the floor? What sort of dust was it? How many times will his post be quoted in full?