Daylight countertop film developing question -- temperature bath

Hi there,

I am new at this, and planning to follow Michael Gordon's advice/process (see his Vimeo video) of using a Jobo expert drum and counter-top roller base. I live in Canada and it is winter here. I keep my house at 18C but could crank it up to 20C on the weekend. I am working on making a DYI tempered bath out of a cooler and an aquarium heater, but thinking that once the chemicals are on the Jobo drum spinning away, they may cool off some -- will this be critical ? I will be using XTOL, and TF-4 as fixer, on TMAX-100 4x5 film. Do I need to have ALL the chemicals at the same temp, or can the fixer etc. be at a lower temp ? Any ideas or advice would be most welcome. It is -17C (2F) outside at the moment..brr...

Cheers !

18c is fine. All developer (that I know of) have a temperature compensation chart in the instructions.

Like this: Attachment 105901

As an example, if the time for 20c was 10 mins, follow the line which crosses 10 minutes and 20c until it reaches 18c and read the new time. In this case, about 14.5 minutes.


Steve.

With Xtol and basic B&W chemistry, there is really no need to control the ambient temp that closely. If you can manage to get the room temp up to 20 C you should be fine. Even at 18 C all you'd really need to do is give more time in the developer to compensate for the slightly lower chemical activity....but that is easily manageable.

Many Thanks for the feedback ! ...helps to know it is not too critical...

...so, about the fixer, stop, etc. do they need to be at the same temp as the developer, or can they just be at "room temp"... ?

Cheers,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by njaimo

...so, about the fixer, stop, etc. do they need to be at the same temp as the developer, or can they just be at "room temp"... ?

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According to your initial post, 18c is your room temperature. Just use it all at 18c.


Steve.

What Steve wrote.

Get a large container like a 5 gallon bucket with a lid for your water and fill that the day before you want to use it.
All your components will be at teh same temperature and ready to use. Just apply the temperature correction (if any) and go.

If you want to eliminate temperature concerns use Diafine, a two-part developer
that works the same at any temperature from 70°F to 85°F (21°C to 29°C).

Develop for 5 minutes in Part A (NO pre-soak allowed), then 5 minutes in Part B.
Both parts want VERY gentle infrequent agitation.

Stop with water for 30 seconds (NO acid stop bath), and fix however you please.

- Leigh

Thanks again for the help ! ...I'll try it soon and see how it goes.