Old Paper, Old Chemistry

[Camerashy]

Interesting if you have Old chemicals and paper. You can improve how your paper behaves by adding incremental amounts of a benzotriazole solution to your paper developer or by bleaching the finished print.
Does paper developer lend itself to replenishment?

 

[jhotopf]

Great to see Derek here. He's on a couple of my discords.

 

[thronobulax]

Does paper developer lend itself to replenishment?

Not really but it is possible to make paper developer with a very long shelf/use life and high capacity.

If you can find a source of raw chemicals, and particularly Glycin, you can make your own Ansco 130 - the formula is well known. The working solution at 1+1 will handle about 50 8x10s/liter and lasts for months when stored in a glass bottle. I used to use Kodak Dektol at 1+2 and throw it out each session, until I discovered the Ansco 130 alternative. Now I make up new working strength developer every 2-3 months (and I print a lot).

 

[Ian Grant]

Does paper developer lend itself to replenishment?

In a home darkroom in theory you could replenish developer and also fixer, in practice though it's not done.

On another Forum some say Ilford ID-78, the warm-tone developer I use, has a long life, a few days once mixed, stored in a bottle between sessions. In practice that's not what I've observed finding the results after a day are poorer. However as I almost exclusively use FB papers the volume of developer left at the end of a session has greatly reduced due to the paper base absorption & carry over.

With RC papers it's different, there's just a little carry over, and in addition many RC papers have a developer accelerator, this may help with a used or older developer solution. It's also why RC papers develop faster and generally have shorter suggested development times.

Ilford make RT developers & fixer for Roller Transport machines, these generally use top-up replenishment.

The most economic way of fixing, particularly with FB paper, is two bath fixing.

Ian

 

[HowLarge]

Nova dip tanks advise some replenish regime , I have never used them , but it makes sense with the right developer
and the Xtol replenish regime seems to work for those who use it.
Ian is the expert here , I think it depends on your volume and frequency of use and the note about FB paper being a sponge is
important if you are new to it otherwise you could be looking for a pinhole in your tray..

 

[Camerashy]

I've found that an alkaline fix has a long shelf life , I use separate bottles of fix for film and paper.

 

[thronobulax]

I've found that an alkaline fix has a long shelf life , I use separate bottles of fix for film and paper.

That's a wise move. I would point out that if you are going into an alkaline paper fixer, you want to avoid an acid stop bad, or at least rinse the print when moving from stop to fix. You don't want to carry the acidity of the stop bath into the alkalinity of the fixer.

 

[Ian Grant]

Nova dip tanks advise some replenish regime , I have never used them , but it makes sense with the right developer
and the Xtol replenish regime seems to work for those who use it.
Ian is the expert here , I think it depends on your volume and frequency of use and the note about FB paper being a sponge is
important if you are new to it otherwise you could be looking for a pinhole in your tray..

I have a 16"x12" Nova 3 slot tank which I used for RA-4 prints, with Tetenal mini-lab chemistry and top-up replenishment. I could use it for B&W but I prefer tray processing.

With films I began using replenished Microphen (ID-68) around late 1968, I was at school shooting on HP3/4, I was using brown 2.5 litre bottles, and it was a bleed system. I also shot FP3/4 in various developers. At the time Microphen was available to make 600ml, 2,5 litres, and 13.5 & 22.5 litres (for deep ranks), replenisher was 2.5 litres.

By 1976 I was using ID-11 replenished in deep tanks, but also Microphen/ID-68 for push processing (I was shooting theater, bust mostly rock concerts), until XP1 was released. I pushed that and XP2 on C41 chemistry.

At some point in the early 1980s I switched to Adox Borax MQ, again replenished, slightly finer grain than ID-11/D76, sharper, and about a half stop better film speed, a bit cleaner working less base fog caused by the 25% higher level of Sulphite in ID-11/D76, so better shadow details. Adox Borax MQ (Fotokemia FR 2) is very close to Agfa 44/Agfa Ansco17, all three where once commercially available, with replenishers.

I found 2.5 litres of stock was ideal for replenishment, I would typically replenish after every 5 films, typically I process a number of films.or sheets at the same time. I switched to Xtol when it was released, it's the easiest of all as it is replenished by fresh Xtol, so I would mix a 5 litre pack then split it into 2.5 litres of stock and the other 2.5 litres for replenishment. Results were always very consistent with all the replenished developers I've used.

Ian