Staining vs. Non-staining Developers for Enlarged Negatives

[Eric Jones]

Hello,

I have some DR5 positives that I want to enlarge for PT/PD developing. I planned on using Arista APHS Ortho film. If these enlarged negatives are designed to be purely used for PT/PD is there any advantage to using a staining developer? Do people gravitate towards a staining developer for it's dual purpose use, PT/PD and VC printing? Or does it have additional characteristics that make it a desirable choice for PT/PD? I was planning on using Clayton Extend Plus developer to keep things simple but I have no problem breaking out the W2D2+ or 510-PYRO. Has anyone been down this road before, any insights before I finally start my own testing would be helpful.

Thanks,

Eric Jones

[Louie Powell]

Eric -

I would be very interested in learning the outcome of your experiments with the Arista APHS film.

We tried to use it in a Pt/Pd workshop last weekend and found that, in spite of attempts with a variety of developers, it kept going "binary". We were able to make half-way decent enlarged positives that we could then use to make useable negatives on Bergger ortho film, but we were unable to use it for both the positive and negative steps in the process.

[Jay DeFehr]

Eric,

I have used 510-Pyro to develop in-camera APHS negatives with good results. My procedure was For a developing tube, 510-Pyro 1:500, agitate for 1 minute, one inversion @ 10 minutes, and 20 miutes total development @ 70F. That procedure should get you close to where you need to be for making an enlarged neg from a positive. Good luck.

Jay

Jay