His formula didn't meet my needs and I like Metol.
His formula didn't meet my needs and I like Metol.
What need did it not meet? I am not a fan of dermititis. And the times I have used PF stuff, I have come away wit red, itchy hands and that is wearing gloves.
Divided dies in a few days (as opposed to mine living 6 months to a year), phen and catechol not optimized for activity (min develops in as little as 6 mins), the shelf life of raw metol is much longer then phen, metol was required to stretch the lifespan of a water based developer, not enough sulfite for oxigen scrubbing.
I was really interested in doing divided developing and pryrocat-hd is not practicle with it's short lifespan. Much of the formulation was targeted to do just this. However it does perform equally as well in the concentrate form.
I never liked the glycol forms as they can easily get poluted with water if you don't make sure your syringes are dry after cleaning.
Divided use with the glycol based developer has an even shorter lifespan as there is almost nothing to scrub the oxygen from the water.
Steve, I started developing film in the 70s. I have yet to meet anyone ever react to Metol. I'm sure it is possible, but I don't think it is common at all. D76 and Dektol are the most common Metol based developers.
Odds are you have/had used them.
Interesting discussion. I don't know for sure it was due to me tol, but it was strange my hands would get red and itchy after a day of developing. I am still learning all this to get a method to be able to have a negative with great detail, skies in the extreme not blown out while keeping all shadow detail. Not an easy task when shooting into the sun got sunrise/sunset pictures and stronglbacklit objects like trees and buildings.
By lifespan, you mean the working solution? I always mix just enough for one use just a few minutes before using, making from stock solution.
A divided developer is not a one-shot by nature. Part A (I mix 2 l) survives me almost a year as it gets re-used for all that duration. The B part becomes the one shot. For large format, it becomes quite economical.
As far as your hands are concerned, there isn't much contact with the chemical when tank developing. if it becomes an issue, rince your hands under a tap. The Metol used here is a minor developing agent and is only used to accelorate the chatechol. There is not much of it.
For the lighting conditions you mention, a divided pyro seems to be the one to use. In that form, compensation effects and the staining action can be a shot-saver. I usually overexpose slightly to get better shadow detail knowing the developer will save my highlights.
I also would not worry about minimal agitation. The developer gives great edge and highlight control, even with continuous rotary drum.
Update. I filtered down to .22micron. Using parish at 1:1:175in 500ml h20 for 1 hour. Still got pinholes. Developer was as clean as it gets. I am wondering now if the strength is to stron for a 1 hour development. Images on my iPad and inverted with ps for iOS.
Steven, why not try as a control a known developer that is good for 1 hour stand?
Like 10ml Rodinol per 80 sg at 1/200 and see what happens.
I use X-Ray film like this, great for trying things
I just wasted 4 sheets of 8X10 X_ray for an experiment
But I did learn something
Tin Can
I did. I used Tmax for 1 hour and it worked fine.
So either HP5-400 I have does not like long time in Pyro (bad batch) or the strength is to strong. I am going to try tmax100 in Pyro at 1:1:175 500 ml for 1 hour and see how it does. As before the HP5-400 works fine at normal dilution and development times in Pyrocat.
Good, hope you find the problem soon
Tin Can
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