Kodak HC-110 Higher Dilution and Increased Time

[BetterSense]

I always use HC110 at 50:1, the same as I do Rodinal. I find Dilution B gives short development times and results in consuming more developer overall.

[Tobias Key]

I use HC110 diluted 1+49 in a combiplan tank. Most films are developed in around the 10 min mark, which suits the slow fill/drain characteristics of the tank. I invert the the tank twice every minute. I have played around with developing times until was happy. The massive dev chart has lots of information but I have never considered it authoritative, as it is impossible to know the skill level of the people supplying the information.

[loonatic45414]

The massive dev chart has lots of information but I have never considered it authoritative, as it is impossible to know the skill level of the people supplying the information.

Yes. Would be nice if additional info was considered, if nothing else, dynamic range & density readings. But then, you have several changes in the emulsions over the years as in the case of Tri-X and almost the whole Arista line.

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[kintatsu]

I use HC-110 at dilution h with FP-4+ for tray development of my 4x5 film. My time is 1 minute initial agitation, followed by 1 tip of the tray every 10 seconds, alternating sides each tip. The initial agitation is 1 tip of the tray every second, alternating sides. The total time is 9 minutes. For roll films, I use dilution B for the same time, with less agitation, and get the same results.

This gives me zi density of .1 and zviii if 1.3 at box speed (125). For HP5+ at box speed, I go with 10 minutes total for the same readings. My meter is a Gossen Starlite 2. I've noticed no decrease in quality over Tetenal Ultrafin or Ultrafin plus using this method. There is also no noticeable difference between my roll films and sheet films. Plus, my consistency has also improved.

[Bruce Watson]

When using HC110, does increasing the dilution and increasing the development time have any side effects (lack of sharpness, contrast etc etc).

This is covered in texts such as Grant Haist's massive two volume tome Modern Photographic Processing. Haist put all his years of accumulated knowledge from working for Kodak down on paper and published it (with Kodak's blessing). My local university research library has a copy.

To answer your question, basically what happens when you dilute a developer is that you dilute everything in the developer. In this case, that means you dilute the sodium sulfite too. The end result is that you increase development time and also increase grain size (a tiny bit, you'll be hard pressed to see it until you go beyond 15x enlargement). The grain will also be a bit sharper (again, a tiny bit).

If you keep everything else equal (nearly impossible outside of a laboratory setting) you won't see any change at all in overall contrast. Don't believe me -- read Haist. He explains it better than I do anyway.

In my own experiments with HC110, Tri-X 5x4 sheets, and various dilutions, I've found Haist to be right on the money. That is, all I really got from increasing dilution was a longer development time. Which was exactly what I was after.