I had one film guy at the local camera store I go to tell me to mix the developer at the 1:4 ratio and then when developing further cut that at 1:1. Ie, using it at 50% strength.
If I do that, would I double the development time?
I had one film guy at the local camera store I go to tell me to mix the developer at the 1:4 ratio and then when developing further cut that at 1:1. Ie, using it at 50% strength.
If I do that, would I double the development time?
Don't do it.
Don't know what you'd hope to gain doing that. Have you seen the film guy's prints? Are they spectacular? Do you want your work to look like his?
It's worth remembering that Kodak (and the other manufacturers) did an enormous amount of testing to formulate their developers and processing methods.
Your friend's recipe might work, but to find out you'll have to do a fair amount of testing. Which most people hate as much as following the rules, and it shows in their prints. You might save 50% of the cost of the developer, but a small saving to risk your photographs on.
Last edited by Mark Sampson; 5-Jul-2018 at 10:42.
Was curious. I plan to use as directed on bottle for now until I get a handle on developing.
Massive development app lists 1:7 and 1:9 mixtures. 1:8 would be cutting stock solution by 50%. Sure it takes longer to develop, but with washing FIM completely before development then using a 1:7 or 1:9 mixture you could really increase the amount of film developed. Using 1:4 fir 4 sheets of 4x as I was taught and throwing away is almost as expensive as having it done for you. While, I haven't tried the other ratios yet and I will 1:4 works well.
Is 1:4 really only food for 4 sheets of 4x5? I wash my film prior to developing until the water is clear or almost clear, the develop. How do you test to see just how many sheets can be processed?
If waste is the concern, I'm pretty sure there are guidelines for replenishment.
Kodak warns to not replenish T-Max developer. If wanting to replenish then the recommended choice is T-Max RS Developer & ReplenisherOriginally Posted by jamesaz
Steven, Kodak says you can dilute T-Max developer to 1:7 and 1:9
Develop at 24ºC (instead 20ºC ) , 75F
TMAX 100
T-MAX (1:7): 10.0 min.
T-MAX (1:9): 15.0 min.
TMAX 400
T-MAX (1:7): 10 min.
T-MAX (1:9): 14 min.
Kodak recommends not diluting more than 1:9
This is stated in Kodak publication F-23, page 5: https://125px.com/docs/film/kodak/f32-TMAX.pdf
This is for small tanks, in the F-23 you have also times for rotary, RS, Pushing with 1:7 and 1:9 (page 19) etc...
Just test it, you may like 1:7 more or less than 1:4, but try to understand what difference you find, perhaps you will have more grain, but in LF grain is seen less, see what happens with shadow detail...
My guess is that it can be very interesting to try it, specially for LF film.
1:7 and 1:9 averaged is cutting 1:1, that guy was knowing about what that !
If images are very dark the developer does not react and is not exhausted, if the film is not exposed then the chem is only used to build the fog level, so the developer would last (in theory) x30 times more times than if the negative is fully exposed.
A DIY way to determine developer activity is to develop sheets with lights open in a tray that has the nominal volume for a single sheet, then you can check is the density obtained in the 2nd or the 3rd sheet is substantially lower or not.
Another way is a drop test. With lights open you take a film end (35mm film) and you let fall on it a drop of developer every 30 seconds. After some 20 drops you wait some 3 min and fix.
Then you can plot the density obtained in each drop site vs the time the drop was there until stop or fixer, you compare the graph obtained with fresh developer with the used one.
From the drop test you can guess the equivalent development time for a seasoned or used developer, you can adjust replenishment or you know when to dispose the soup.
but remember that the developer exhaustion depends on if the processed film had dark or white scenes.
Cool. I think, what I will do is taek like 12 frames of a typical scene and then mix at 1:4, 1:7, 1:8 and 1:9 and see which mix I prefer, then once that is determined. See how many times I can use that mix before it starts to degrade. So far, at 1:4 things look good, only a couple of issues that I assume is from how I am agitating the tank (probably a bit too much) But all of the images turned out really well and any issues are easily corrected.
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