PMK and ABC

[Pawlowski6132]

I had read recently that, due to ABC causing the appearance of course grain in enlargements, it is best used for contact printing. PMK, on the other hand, would be more suited to enlarging in this regards.

Has anyone experienced this?

thanx,

Joe

[Daniel Stone]

ABC Pyro isn't known as a "fine-grained" developer, but its an extremely sharp developer. If you want super sharp grain, use Rodinal or ABC Pyro.

PMK produced too heavy of a stain for MY liking(longer printing times), so I've settled on Pyrocat-HD(Formulary mixed in glycol) at 2:2:100 dilution.

I'm loving the results on Lodima G3 in MAS Amidol(8x10 contact prints). Wonderful combination!

if you're enlarging, Pyro-HD is great for those as well. I soup everything b+w now in Pyro-HD, and its improved my prints, so I'm not switching back :).

just my $.02

-Dan

[Jay DeFehr]

Joe,

ABC produces more grain than PMK, but that's only part of the problem with ABC. ABC is far less consistent in use because it's three constituent stocks degrade at different rates in their storage containers, so that every consecutive working solution is a little, or a lot different than the last. ABC also gives up about 1 stop of film speed compared to PMK, because ABC is a pyro-only developer and PMK includes metol in a superadditive pair with pyro. I agree with Daniel that PMK produces too much general stain. ABC produces beautiful gradation, and sharp negatives, but it's obsolete, in my opinion. PMK is better, but 510-Pyro is better still, in my opinion.