Anyone use 777 Panthermic film developer?

[John Kasaian]

FromThe Frugal Photographer in Canada? Is it the same as Harveys? It claims to be the same stuff used by 'Life' togs.

[Mark Sampson]

One of my first teachers, Charles Harbutt, mentioned that it was his choice. I took that workshop in 1976; I never tried 777, or even thought about it again, until I saw the recent article on unblinkingeye.com. From that I gather that it works best with large volumes of film, which would count me out.

[KOG]

I've just started trying 777. Haven't formed an opinion on it yet.

From what I've read it is better with older style emulsions. The unblinkingeye.com (http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Harvey/harvey.html) website have some info on it. Some examples are on flicker.com

[Bill_1856]

An interesting developer, quite different from all the current commercial mixes. Unfortunately, available today only in large quantities. It was HC-B's standard soup.

[John Kasaian]

Bill,

One gallon of the stuff isn't a large quantity, is it?

[Gene McCluney]

An interesting developer, quite different from all the current commercial mixes. Unfortunately, available today only in large quantities. It was HC-B's standard soup.


I didn't think HC-B did any of his own lab work?

[Bill_1856]

John, the last time I checked, 777 was sold only in a 5 gallon size.
Gene, it's not clear to me whether he developed his film himself while away from Paris for weeks or months at a time, or sent it back to Gassman, or carried it back himself at the end of the assignment. I have tried without success to determine this, but whoever did do his developing, apparently it was always doped in 777.
It would certainly make good sense to use a Panthermic developer when on the road.

[evan clarke]

I used Germain's finegrain for a fair amount of time and is is VERY finegrained, on Tmax 100, I couldn't see the grain in my magnifier!

Water 700cc 125 deg.
Metol 7g.
Sodium Sulfite 70g.
Paraphenylenediamine 7g.
Glycin 7g.
Water to 1 liter

Dilute 1:1, can be replenished with 20-25% fresh developer. I use it one-shot.


EC

[John Kasaian]

Germain's sounds interesting too.
The Frugal Photographer's pitch for 777 Panthermic says that it was also the choice of W Eugene Smith and Andre Kertesz. It might be worthwhile to try a gallon of the stuff.

[jnantz]

Germain's sounds interesting too.
The Frugal Photographer's pitch for 777 Panthermic says that it was also the choice of W Eugene Smith and Andre Kertesz. It might be worthwhile to try a gallon of the stuff.

john

from what i understand it is a formula owned by bluegrass packaging in kentucky.
patented formula i think ... maybe the folks in canada are buying 5 gal's at a time and selling smaller quantities, or they are selling pre-mixed "kits" using the formula from the unblinkingeye article --- http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Harvey/harvey.html .
when i spoke with the lady that mixes/packages the stuff (at bluegrass), she kind of laughed at the speculation about what it was made of, and said " that article on the internet is way off" (the unblinkingeye article).

when you use it, don't forget to mellow it by using it a bunch and exhausting it a little bit. when i used a lot of dk50 in tanks i always left about 1/3 the tank to mellow out the new developer we were adding ...


good luck!

john

[Mark Sampson]

A rhetorical question- who's using this stuff? I heard about it in 1976 and then spent 10 years working in the profession, and then 20 years photographing in industry; I thought I was reasonably current in the literature and practice- commercial and fine-art worlds both- and I never heard of anyone using this developer until the unblinkingeye page. Given the experimental nature of photographers, and our collective willingness to chase the 'magic bullet', I'm surprised that this developer has remained so obscure for so long.

[John Kasaian]

Mark, Thats a good rhetorical question! I'm quite content with D-76 and now that you mention it I guess I am looking for a magic bullet!

Man, do I feel like a dweeb. I should be concentrating instead on making better photographs than experimenting with something so obscure hardly anyones using it anymore. Thats great advice & I'll take it---thanks for the heads up! :)

[Bill_1856]

Obscure and virtually extinct? Probably, but the same could have been said for Pyro developers until quite recently.

[Wayne Crider]

A rhetorical question- who's using this stuff? I heard about it in 1976 and then spent 10 years working in the profession, and then 20 years photographing in industry; I thought I was reasonably current in the literature and practice- commercial and fine-art worlds both- and I never heard of anyone using this developer until the unblinkingeye page. Given the experimental nature of photographers, and our collective willingness to chase the 'magic bullet', I'm surprised that this developer has remained so obscure for so long.

I've always noticed that a thread about it came around every couple years or so. Maybe check Pnet and Apug for others if your interested. The word is, as noted above, that when new it has to be ripened before it's true nature comes out. I always wanted to try it but never shot enough to justify buying 5 gallons. Maybe we could split an order around here? That is if it can be shipped.

[Michael Kadillak]

Jim Shaunessey I believe has worked extensively with this developer. I have ordered it from Bluegrass a while back but have yet to mix it. Maybe he will chime in.