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I have begun to use Pyrocat developer which has received much play on these forums. I am especially interested in this semi stand development, I actually have shot a couple of extra negatives to experiement with. Does anyone have any starting point for FP4 exposed @ 80 asa? Thanks in advance
I haven't worked with semi-stand developement but I am using Pyrocat with minimal agitation development (after first minute only agitate 10 seconds every 3rd minute). I've found that with minimal agitation development, pyrocat gives full asa. I'm sure you would want to do your own film speed test first using semi-stand agitation but I would think that you would need at least a 125 asa with FP4 and semi-stand development. When testing film speed with Tri-x and pyrocat I used 7 minutes as a starting point and developed film (4x5 Tri-x developed in trays) for 7, 10, 13, 16 and 19 minutes. Of course, I've just started using pyrocat this year myself so I'm not an expert.
Can this be done with, say, 10 sheets in a tray ? After flipping them around initially, you then flip them only once every 3 minutes ?
I use a Summitek Cradle (www.summitek.com/cradle.html) and develop 6 sheets at a time. For a film development time test, starting at 7 minutes, I just pull one sheet of film out of the Cradle every 3 minutes. But you should be able to agitate the film once every 3 minutes and then after the first 7 minutes (or whatever your starting test time is) you just pull one film out of the tray of developer and fix it.
....and pull one sheet out each 3 minutes if your talking about doing a development time test. For regular development then yes, just agitate (shuffle) the sheets once every 3 minutes. I know of several people who develop that way with minimal agitation.
I have tried semi-stand development with Pyrocat HD in 35mm and 120, and will be trying it in sheet film this weekend. For both of the previously mentioned films I used a 1:1:200 dilution, agitated for 30 seconds, then let it sit for 30 minutes. I then agitated for 30 seconds again and let it sit another 30 minutes. I did this for both 3200 and 25 iso film, and both yeilded very nice negatives, although I would probably cut my time back to 45 minutes, with agitation at the 20 minute mark. No problems with bromide drag or infectious development could be seen.