Ilford HP5 PLUS processing

New member 1st post here.....65 year-old here....have been away from film processing since 1975 when I was in college. I had a little Beseler 23C enlarger in my home back then. I used to shoot Plus X and Panatomic X, not so much Tri X. I developed film in Microdol X and my paper in Dektol. Anyway, I became a professional portrait and wedding photographer for 25+ years and sold my RB67 equipment when the bottom fell out with film and went digital. I regretted it ever since and just a couple months ago bought a used, but mint RB67 body, 120 back and waist level viewfinder. Had an eye level prism finder and a 90mm lens. Just ordered some Ilford HP5 today and tanks, beakers, etc to process my own film. Cross another item off the bucket list. Anyway, I went out on Youtube and watched a video by Ilford in processing HP5. It showed during the washing process the guy demonstrating this washed the film with about three separate tanks of fresh water and that was it. When I was processing film years ago, we used to run a constant bath of water for about 20 minutes. Apparently, this has all changed. Is this the standard practice now on the wash? Also, I live in the country and on well water. I have a small water distiller in my home and maybe I ought to be mixing my chemicals with distilled water rather than use well water with all it's impurities? Thanks in advance for any answers you can provide. I'm pretty happy to be getting back into this. Probably won't do the enlarger thing, but will be shooting some black & white and scanning it in. 120 film was always my first love. Shot a ton of Vericolor in my time. :)

The Ilford wash... very economical on water. I applaud their conservation goals but I can’t bring myself to use that technique. I was 20 minute duration with about 10 changes of water.

You can download the HP5 Plus data sheet here:

https://www.ilfordphoto.com/amfile/f...3/product/695/

Pages 5-6 have a detailed description of recommended processing procedures, including wash.

If you have a distillation setup, that'd be the way to go for mixing your chems.

You can generally wash film in well water if there's an appropriate line filter in place (preferably gently running water that gets continuously exchanged for ten minutes or so), and if you give a final tray rinse in distilled water containing a tiny bit of PhotoFlo or equivalent. So a single gallon of store-bought distilled water might last you many sessions. You need only a small amount in the tray, which you discard after each session. The total amount of water used will be tiny compared to watering a single fruit tree, or hosing off a front porch .... believe me, I know a thing or two about rural wells and hard water.

Welcome back to film and processing!

On questions of water quality, hardness, etc., I defer to Drew and others with vast knowledge of all sorts of technical information beyond my knowledge. There have been various questions about washing over time, and both here and on other fora, the Ilford method has been generally substantiated. Temperature, of course, is important (not too cold), and the total time in the three fresh water exchanges is sometimes specified, though Ilford simply gives numbers of inversions. A number of us give one "rinse" of several inversions after the fixer to remove surface/tank fixer before the three changes, and I often leave the film in the last bath an extra minute while pouring fixer back into its container. As Drew says, a final bath for 30-60 seconds or more n distilled water with a wetting agent will save you spotting problems.

Water usage depends on location and chems used

Congratulations for buying RB and not RZ, I like the RB 127 KL a lot. NOS RB was available 15 years ago, when I bought

If you are on a personal well, that matters... more

I suggest you do exactly what you used to do, then adapt

Look for Beseler 23CIII, I bought eBay NOS in box for $125 delivered last decade

Well, I certainly wouldn't use the water at Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley!

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Originally Posted by Drew Wiley

Well, I certainly wouldn't use the water at Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley!

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What's wrong with it?

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Originally Posted by Drew Wiley

Well, I certainly wouldn't use the water at Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley!

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I'll bet it could be distilled. :)

You really do gotta get in your dream trip through our Great Basin area, Michael, if only to actually taste the water at Stovepipe Wells. You can't drink water just anywhere around salt flats, especially if you see animal skeletons laying around the shore of little pools devoid of edge vegetation too. The water at Stovepipe Wells isn't poisonous; but it does have enough borax and minerals in it to make you want to instantly spit it out. Basically soap. You could probably do your laundry in it without added detergent. There are other desert areas where the water is so hard that if a drop gets onto your lens or any other glass item, it will instantly and permanently bond to it.

But Death Valley would be a suitable spot to set up a water distiller if you can find enough water - no need for a burner beneath it. Just leave it outside in the sun. The only real disadvantage is that going back into a darkroom and developing film at ambient air temperatures of 120F might be a bit annoying, if the lethal scorpions running around on the floor don't get you first. ... Just a hint. Visit Death Valley from Nov to April instead, and bring your own water ... and lots of film! ... in a cooler! If you go there in March, you'll spend the entire next month drying to get all the fine clay and salt dust blowing around out of your gear. Feb is awfully nice, but cold at the higher altitudes of the Great Basin. There are times I've camped in snow above Death Valley in the evenings. You'll need snowshoes for trails at the end of the road branching off above Stovepipe Wells, and perhaps 4WD to get there - but the views !!!

HP5 is a great film and easy to use. Its a competitor to Tri-X, but a little bit more contrasty. I process HP5 in X-Tol at 50% according to Kodak specifications with consistent very good results. I begin by letting the film soak for about five minutes in plain water, empty the tank and then develop in X-Tol as described. I don't use stop bath, just rinse six times and then fix. After fixing I wash for two minutes and then treat for two minutes at constant agitation with permawash. Then I wash for another twenty minutes, soak in photoflow for one minute and squeegee and dry. The tap water in San Francisco is very clean and doesn't have very many minerals in it so I can use the water right out of the tap. If your water has particles or minerals in it you'll want a filtration or water softening system. I like HP5.

I miss Plus-X.

David