Test of Stearman SP-445 and Ilford chemistry

[bomzi]

I've just ran a test of the SP-445 with a sheet of Ilford Delta 100.
This is also the very first sheet of black and white film that I have developed so it was a test of the entire process as well.
I followed Ilford's directions completely and all the chemistry was mixed with distilled water:

DDX (1:4) @ 20C for 12 minutes - 4 inversions every 30 seconds.
A small amounts of the developer did leak out of the SP-445.

Ilfostop (1:19) for 10 seconds or so - the temperature was higher than 20C. Probably around 25C.

Rapid Fixer (1:4) for 3 minutes - I wasn't sure so I inverted here as well.
The temperature was higher than 20C. Probably around 25C.

I'm based in New Delhi and it's the middle of summer. So the big challenge was to keep the chemistry cool. I used a water bath and added ice gel packs to lower the temperature. I also put the developer into the freezer for a while after mixing to bring that down to around 19C. In between agitations, I kept the Sp-445 in the water bath. After the fixer, I washed the film with the water from the water bath as it was much cooler then what was coming out of the tap. One final wash was with Ilfotol and distilled water.

Seems to have worked out fine. The negative has some white powdery stuff right at the top which I think will come off with a second wash. No other streaks or anything like that.

Overall I am quite pleased! My last attempt to process film was C-41 with the taco method and it did not go well.
This time the whole process was pretty smooth and, as far as I can tell, the negative looks fine.

180612

[mpirie]

I would suggest you modify your process to make sure your solutions are all at the same temperature.....including the wash water.

If any of my chemistry is not within one or two degrees of my 20 degrees standard, I won't start......consistency is the key.

There's no reason why you can't run at 25 degrees and modify the times to suit.

I'd also suggest your stop and fix times are a bit low.

Mike

[esearing]

Congratulations - welcome to your new addiction.
Ice in plastic bags works for me when I have to use my darkroom at 90*F.
Even some ice in a cooler with a small battery powered fan can cool a small space like a bathroom for a short period of time.

You can use water as a stop bath with most developers.
I find ilford FP4 does better with a 5-6 minute fix, alternating 30 seconds of agitation then 30 seconds soak to remove all the pink cast.

The nice thing about the sp445 is it allows you to process 1 to 4 sheets. So you can experiment (when you are ready) with developer dilutions, different agitation methods, and extended/shortened time.
While learning - take two shots of the same scene. Process one and then make adjustments as needed to your time/dilution/agitation. try to keep temperature as close to your preferred value as you can.

Find some extra caps - the ones on the tank can break if dropped onto a hard surface. They are a standard size.

[Doremus Scudder]

Congratulations on your success!

Just a couple of thoughts:

I agree with the above post that you need to keep your temperature more consistent. You can process at ambient temperature for all solutions as long as you compensate for the increased activity of the developer. Here's a link to Ilford's compensation chart: https://www.ilfordphoto.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Temperature-compensation-chart.pdf

I also agree that your stop and fix times are too short. Stop should be a minimum of 30 seconds. Fix should be for at least twice the clearing time (search here for film clearing test or "clip test" if you don't know how to do one). That could indeed work out to three minutes, but the longer you use your fixer, the slower its activity becomes, so you need to do a clip test for each batch to arrive at a fixing time. However, it does no damage to film to fix it for a bit longer, so I fix for the maximum recommended time or a bit more, even with fresh fix. Ilford, for example, gives a time range of 2-5 minutes for their Rapid Fixer and "general-purpose film." Five minutes, then is the recommended maximum and what I would use until the clearing time on my clip test reached twice that for fresh fix, at which time the fixer is discarded.

FWIW, the Ilford tech sheet on Rapid Fixer is full of great information. Here's a link: https://www.ilfordphoto.com/amfile/file/download/file_id/2012/product_id/711/?___store=ilford_brochure

Best,

Doremus

[bomzi]

Thanks for all the help everyone!

Temp consistency is a real challenge. I need to figure that out first.