The Lure of Simplicity--Ansco 130

[John Kasaian]

Well, I've reduced my arsenal of films down to 5 for the three formats I shoot (spread out over four manufacturers) In the spirit of simplifying my lf "stuff" I'm thinking of having a go at Ansco 130 for souping both paper and film. The prospect of having one product that can do both jobs is very tempting. I know that john nanian works with A-130 quite successfully and so I was wondering if anyone else here uses it and with what films and papers?

[Merg Ross]

Hi John-

I have not tried 130 with film, but it has been my primary paper developer for many years. Depending on the paper, I modify it with additional bromide or bzt.

[paulr]

I'm curious to hear how that works. 130 and 120 were just about the only paper developers I ever used.

The film developer I used wasn't too diifferent from 130. It had a bunch of glycin in it, and used carbonate.

Might work well!

[evan clarke]

Yep,
I love the stuff. I have moderated the formula a little, boosting the Sodium Carbonate to 80g per liter of stock and have replaced the Potassium Bromide with 15cc Benzotriazole 1% solution. I print on Ilford Warmtone FB and this cooler variation gives a wonderful color tone...Evan Clarke

[John Kasaian]

Evan,

Have you developed film with 130?

Is there much difference between it and, say d-76?

[evan clarke]

Hi John,
No, I have not. I use FX37 for all my films now and am very happy with it. It's economical, I like the gradation and I get box speed from all the films I use. I have developed some ortho films for masks in the 130 and it seemed ok for that..Evan

[Henry Ambrose]

John,

I used 130 on film a little. I diluted lots more than John Nanian if I remember correctly. Seems like he was at 1:3 or 1:5 and maybe I did 1:10. Results were pretty good for me.

If you're mixing from scratch you can change the formula at will. (and not have to buy anything extra) You might look at some of the glycin film developers to see the proportions of the various chemicals. I came up with one that worked well. I called it Glycin Metolrita. Finally just stuck with Xtol for film and 130 for paper and never looked back.

Here's the Glycin Metolrita formula:
spoon measure
(standard mixing procedures with a pinch of sodium sulfite then the metol at 125 degrees)
sodium sulfite - 8 tsp
metol - 1/2 tsp
glycin - 1/2 tsp
sodium metaborate - 1/2 tsp
salt - 4 tsp
(salt keeps it from being violently grainy)
makes a quart or liter to use straight or you could dilute and use longer time
FP4 at 6 minutes worked pretty well with sharp sharp grain.

[jnantz]

hi john

henry is right, i dilute about 1:5 for sheet film ...
and i shuffle in trays ...
my developer is usually not fresh, if that means anything :)
i buy about 5 or 6 gallons at a time, and work my way through it ...

good luck! and have fun :)

john

[John Kasaian]

Thanks john! I'll have to order some next paycheck. I'm happy bringing plain jane D-76 to the dance, but I'd really like to see how her cousin A-130 from Binghamton performs ;)

[David R Munson]

I have used 130 for both film and paper with great success. Had I a darkroom still, I would still be using it exclusively to develop my B&W prints (though I don't think my favorite FB paper is made any more). It worked wonderfully with AGFA multigrade fiber paper as well as Azo. The few times I used it to develop film, it was developing 8x10 sheet film by inspection, and while this was just before I sold my 8x10 camera and didn't get to experiment with it too extensively, the initial results were pretty fantastic. I used the same dilution for both film and paper. FWIW I used the stuff from Photo Formulary and it lasts damn near forever!

[John Kasaian]

Thanks everyone!

David, your insight is very encouraging. Right now I've got a variety of fiber based graded paper from about four different manufacturers---it would be interesting to see how 130 does (...hmmm, it might help me to simplify my paper inventory as well)