Best Developer for Trix 320

[mentalcrisis00]

I used trix 320 for my DV trip because the only other thing hunts had was Tmax 100 and figured the ISO would be too low. And I had heard trix is great stuff, I've personally never used it. I was wondering what I should use to develop this stuff to get best results. I hear alot of people swear by D76 with Trix. I don't have any D76 but I have some Sprint developer and Adox Adonal, would I get better, worse, or similar results from either? All I can find online for kodak developer is TMAX, HC110 liquid, and D76 powder. I'd rather use liquid seeming thats what I've become accustomed to and I generally use up my chemistry within 6 months to a year.

Basically I want a decent tonal range without too much contrast (if possible). It was sort of bright in DV so I imagine the negs will be mostly contrasty anyhow. I'm also pretty partial to slower developments, 9 minutes plus.

[Michael Graves]

HC-110 is my personal favorite.

[John Kasaian]

You can fnd TMAX & HC110 but no D-76??
This is very strange!
Ansel Adams liked the looks of Tri X in HC-110 dil. B You might try that.

[mentalcrisis00]

ya I looked up dilution B and it's like 5 minute development, I've never really done anything that quick but maybe I can try it out. I have been going the Ansel route lately with my switch to tray development so maybe I should just go all the way.

The lab I rent space from has D76 1:1 to use for free however I can't be 100% positive on the dilution or the quality of it. So using it on my death valley stuff is a huge risk. I can't find liquid D76 anywhere, maybe there is no such thing. I hear Sprint is similar to D76.

UPDATE: Sorry for stacking this post up with an enormous amount of questions but I want to make sure I have the dilutions right in my head. For dilution B HC-110 I would use 1 ounce syrup and 32 ounces water, for dilution H I would use .5 ounce syrup and 32.5 ounces water? I assume this because H is half strength of B and I use roughly 33 ounces developer seeming I use small 5x7 trays. If this is wrong call me on it because I don't want to mess my film up over a technicality.

[Eric Biggerstaff]

Kodak D-76 is always a powder, you mix a stock and then dilute to working strength. If you are looking for a liquid version then Clayton F-76 comes to mind and there are others, check out the selection at Freestyle. However, if you want the true D-76 then I believe you are stuck with the powder.

[tgtaylor]

If the film is truly important to you and you don't have prior experience developing it, then I highly recommend that you follow Kodak's recommendations religiously:
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/f4017/f4017.pdf If you do, you will not be disappointed.

D-76 1:1 is a good developer (I've used it for years) but Xtol 1:1 is better. Xtol is packaged as a 2-part powder to make 5 liters of stock solution. That's a lot of developer but it's fairly inexpensive ($10) and a stock solution will last 6 months in a floating lid tank which you can be purchased for less than $30.

Good luck and post something if they work out.

Thomas

[Jim Noel]

There is no "BEST" developer for Tri-X or most other films.
Get one and learn to use it with the film and it will be the "BEST" for you.

[Michael Graves]

I dilute the syrup 1:50 into distilled water and develop for 8 minutes. That should give you a decent starting point for your own tests.


ya I looked up dilution B and it's like 5 minute development, I've never really done anything that quick but maybe I can try it out. I have been going the Ansel route lately with my switch to tray development so maybe I should just go all the way.

The lab I rent space from has D76 1:1 to use for free however I can't be 100% positive on the dilution or the quality of it. So using it on my death valley stuff is a huge risk. I can't find liquid D76 anywhere, maybe there is no such thing. I hear Sprint is similar to D76.

UPDATE: Sorry for stacking this post up with an enormous amount of questions but I want to make sure I have the dilutions right in my head. For dilution B HC-110 I would use 1 ounce syrup and 32 ounces water, for dilution H I would use .5 ounce syrup and 32.5 ounces water? I assume this because H is half strength of B and I use roughly 33 ounces developer seeming I use small 5x7 trays. If this is wrong call me on it because I don't want to mess my film up over a technicality.

[mentalcrisis00]

I dilute the syrup 1:50 into distilled water and develop for 8 minutes. That should give you a decent starting point for your own tests.

Thank you Graves, I realize it's all about preference and experience. However I've only been doing 4x5 gung ho for about 4 months. There are a lot of developers and films I'm not experienced at all with. I have been reading up on the forums and in the Ansel book series but there's nothing that compares to hands on experience. If I can get feedback and opinions to make my process better before I attempt experimentation than I'll take what I can get.

I have a few sheets of trix left from my trip so I can do a few test shots and try different developers before I do anything with my important stuff.

Thanks again all I'll be going to the lab this friday so hopefully next week I'll have some stuff to show off.

[Daniel_Buck]

I like HC-110. I don't know about other developers, but HC-110 and Tri-x has proven (to me) to be a very forgiving combination, I love it!

[edtog]

I used to use Id-11 but recently switched to xtol and won't be going back.

[John Kasaian]

ya I looked up dilution B and it's like 5 minute development, I've never really done anything that quick but maybe I can try it out. I have been going the Ansel route lately with my switch to tray development so maybe I should just go all the way.

The lab I rent space from has D76 1:1 to use for free however I can't be 100% positive on the dilution or the quality of it. So using it on my death valley stuff is a huge risk. I can't find liquid D76 anywhere, maybe there is no such thing. I hear Sprint is similar to D76.

UPDATE: Sorry for stacking this post up with an enormous amount of questions but I want to make sure I have the dilutions right in my head. For dilution B HC-110 I would use 1 ounce syrup and 32 ounces water, for dilution H I would use .5 ounce syrup and 32.5 ounces water? I assume this because H is half strength of B and I use roughly 33 ounces developer seeming I use small 5x7 trays. If this is wrong call me on it because I don't want to mess my film up over a technicality.

Kodak published the 5 minute dev time for dil. B after reformulating TXP a few years back. A lot of people squawked about it and Kodak responded by saying to use the times published for the old Tri-X (they actually had a web info blog for film customers then) IMHO 5 minutes is waaay to short!

[arthur berger]

hc110 should work just fine with tri-x as long as you use it properly; and that means diluting it correctly and not overdeveloping. The way I was taught and have always used it is as follows: Get a 16 ounce bottle of hc110 developer, a gallon of distilled water and 4 one pint (16 ounce) brown bottles, a funnel and a mixing container. Pour about 16 ounces of the distilled into the mixing container and add the 16 ounces of hc110, now half fill the empty hc110 bottle with distilled water, cap and shake.Pour this into your container and add distilled to make 64 ounces or a half gallon. This is your stock, now using the funnel fill your 4 pints with stock.Using tray development of tri x I dilute the stock 1 to 15 or 2 ounces of stock to 30 ounces of tap water. At approximately 68 degreesF I tray develop 6 negatives for 7 minutes constantly shuffling them and rotating the 5x7 tray so I touch a different edge every cycle. There - thats all there is to it.
good luck- Arthur

[Filmnut]

Since you said how important the film from trip is, if you have a few sheets leftover, go and shoot them in as similar light as you can, then process them using some of the advice here, and then you have the chance to fine tune your technique before committing the important stuff to processing.
I use Xtol, 1:1, and I like the results, and it has been a mainstay of mine for several years, but any of the devs mentioned can give excellent results too. When using a different film/dev combination than my norm, I look it up on the "Massive Developer Chart" online and that has given me a decent starting point for my purposes.
No matter what, I would still run a few test sheets before doing the important stuff.
Keith

[jnantz]

i love using eyeball measured caffenol c with tri x 320
ansco 130 works great too ( 1:6, 72º 6 - 8mins )

[mentalcrisis00]

Great info, I'll do some testing before I dive into the important stuff as stated. I was hoping to get this development done this friday but I don't think I'll be able to get any HC-110 before then. Might be a good thing to wait and not rush I suppose.

I also frequent massive dev chart and they say develop trix with HC 110 should be 5.5 minutes at 68 degrees. I usually take those figures with a grain of salt, start there, and come up with my own figure that fits my shooting style. Just need a place to start.

I jumped ahead in "The Negative" and Ansel pretty much describes his procedure as Arthur states above. Seems like a tried a true method, so I'll use it as a starting point. Hopefully Hunts or someone in my area has HC 110 in stock otherwise I'll be waiting another week or so to develop this stuff.

[Bill McMannis]

I believe I picked up this developing tip a couple years ago on this forum.

I rate the Tri-X as 160, rather than 320. I develop for 16 minutes in TMax developer dluted to 1:9.

I now use a 1 minute presoak in water in that helps bring out details in the shadows.

[arthur berger]

I forgot to say that i also rate my tri-x fim at 160 and my given development time above is for enlarging .

[mentalcrisis00]

Ah yes well I shot mine at 320 so I guess that development time wouldn't work for me. Or is it that you just shoot it at 320 and then develop as 160?

[Bill McMannis]

Ah yes well I shot mine at 320 so I guess that development time wouldn't work for me. Or is it that you just shoot it at 320 and then develop as 160?


In my case, I set my meter at 160 and then develop as described above.

[natelfo]

I like TXP 320 at ISO 200, HC-110 Dil. H, 6:30 at 70/21 degrees (that's using rotary development). It's a toss-up as to whether I like TMax 100 or Tri-X better, they look very different, but they both look so good. I haven't tried pushing 4x5 film yet, and I have only done it a few times with 120 film, but I bet it would look good with high contrast, but the smooth grain of large format.

[JohnN]

For expansion and contraction, DDX, D-76, and Xtol.

[jumanji]

Raising old thread. Should I choose Pyro HD or Xtol for 320 TXP?

[John Kasaian]

Raising old thread. Should I choose Pyro HD or Xtol for 320 TXP?
IMHO it depends on if you want a staining developer or not.

[jumanji]

Yes I like it.
I know its a matter of personal taste but i just want to know which look do you prefer?

IMHO it depends on if you want a staining developer or not.

[Michael Wesik]

Raising old thread. Should I choose Pyro HD or Xtol for 320 TXP?

If I were using a conventional developer I would definitely use Xtol, generally speaking and without knowing what your end game is. But given the choice, I would choose Pyrocat over Xtol in a heartbeat. I've used Tri-X320 with the Pyrocat developers for the past three years and the combo has been wonderful. Particularly with divided development and silver printing, I've managed an N-5 with ease on 8x10 and 11x14 film. I've done this several times with subjects with SBR of more that 12 stops. The only thing I manipulated was the A/B dilution, all other variables held constant.

You can't go wrong either way but a staining developer has too many advantages to pass up, IMHO.

Best of luck!

Michael

[Vaughn]

Far out! I am developing negatives from Death Valley, too...both Tri-x 320 and FP4+. I have been using HC-110, Dilution B...but in a drum (constant rotation). Also I will be using the negs for platinum prints and/or carbon prints, so my development times are much longer than the recommended. (Much more contrast required.)

But I think I will switch to a staining developer for the rest of the negatives...need to do a little more research first. As some of my exposed film are duplicate shots, I could do a little comparison between the two.

It is surprising -- depending on where one is in DV, the contrast range on a sunny day can still be 'average'...or even less. Bright, of course.

Good luck! and PS...keep an eye on the capacity of the developer!

[jumanji]

Thanks all. I will use Pyro HD.

[vdonovan]

Another vote for TXP 320 in Xtol:
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8509/8573117411_35be294e75_z.jpg

[hka]

Whooow! Nice print.

[mathieu Bauwens]

127013
TXP 320 @ 800iso with D76

[jnantz]

i love using eyeball measured caffenol c with tri x 320
ansco 130 works great too ( 1:6, 72º 6 - 8mins )

after maybe 9 years of this combination i have changed my tune ...

now i will say it is caffenol C and DEKTOL
split developed ... 4-5 mins in dektol 1:7, then 5 mins caffenol C

YMMV