Re: Pin holes with minimal agitation
I use either distilled water or water from RO system. I have had this happen with water stop bath and regular stop bath. I am ordering testers this week to rule out dissolved solids of which I shouldn’t have any and to rule out ph level. But as stated in other thread, the pyro works fine with normal development times and dilutions. All my other developers work fine for minimal agitation as well as normal. So I am ruling out if it is film specific or not. If not then I rule out water. If not water pyro batch I got is bad.
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Re: Pin holes with minimal agitation
It is the film. HP5-400 doesn't like PyrocatHD for minimal agitation. The Acros developed fine. Only a couple pinholes. Like 3. Second sheet of Acros no pinholes but but 4 air bubbles. Easy enough to fix.
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Solved the pin hole problem with HP5-400 and PyrocatHD for minimal agitation
So no one has to read thru all the posts, the short version is, it is the film. I shot two frames of Acros 100 yesterday and followed the same procedure. Neither showed the issues. 1 frame had a couple of pinholes, like 3, the other had none (although I did get 4 air bubbles, my fault) but both frames are highly usable. I know several have stated they have had no problems with HP5-400 and PyrocatHD when doing minimal agitation (mine is over a 1 hour period) so must be this particular batch of film, maybe not (maybe they changed formula or something, who knows. It does fine using Tmax Developer for 1 hour minimal agitation. I did try tube processing to see if it was the SP-445 and inversion agitation, but got same result.
So, from now on, I will test 1 sheet of whatever film I am using from the box I got it from to be sure it will work with minimal agitation or stand process if I am doing that using the developer of choice for that project/outing. For now, I will not be using HP5-400 with Pyrocat for minimal agitation or stand processing. Just regular old 2-bath or single bath.
The left two do not have pin holes, although one has some air bubble snot. Both are Acros 100. The polka dot one is the HP5-400. All processed identically.
Re: Solved the pin hole problem with HP5-400 and PyrocatHD for minimal agitation
Re: Developed 4 sheets of HP5-400 had issues with pinholes
Re: Developed 4 sheets of HP5-400 had issues with pinholes
Re: Developed 4 sheets of HP5-400 had issues
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mrred
MCAT 'A'
70 mil dist water
pinch of sodium sulfite
1.5 g metol
6 g catechol
25 g sodium sulfite
distilled water to 100 ml for concentrate or 1000 ml for divided use.
Part B
70 ml distilled water
10 g sodium hydroxide (lye)
distilled water to 100 ml
...
In divided (what I actually use) I soak part a for 5 mins, dump back for re-use and don't rinse, and then 1:150 of the B for about 7 mins. You can adjust the contrast with changing the concentration of the B.
Peter,
Your MCAT divided developer is very interesting to me and I would like to try it on 35mm film first. Thanks for sharing your secret sauce. :)
I'm a little intrigued by the two baths and would appreciate your help in making me understand the mechanism of MCAT.
1. Is this a staining developer? High sulphite level in part A makes me think that MCAT might not be a staining developer. Even if Sulphite is ignored, the ratio of Metol to Catechol is quite high to produce appreciable stain. I remember Sandy King saying in one of the threads that too much Metol can reduce stain. In fact, Pyrocat-M has Metol and Catechol in the ratio 1:20.
2. Does development happen in both baths or only in the second bath? As part A contains both Metol and Sulphite, I would think a good amount of development happens in the seven minutes spent in the first bath. But the presence of acidic Catechol in part A makes me think otherwise.
3. Do you agitate the tank in either of two baths? How much?