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Thread: D-76; Mixing Small Batch?

  1. #21

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    Re: D-76; Mixing Small Batch?

    Happy to see some good discussion here, and I'm grateful for the variety of suggestions both pro and con. It seems I will definitely be mixing up my own developers from scratch in the very near future. I've been doing this with various alt printing chemicals for a few years already; kallitype, argyrotype, and so on... so, it's only natural I'd start rolling my own developers as well.

  2. #22

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    Re: D-76; Mixing Small Batch?

    Quote Originally Posted by martiansea View Post
    Happy to see some good discussion here, and I'm grateful for the variety of suggestions both pro and con. It seems I will definitely be mixing up my own developers from scratch in the very near future. I've been doing this with various alt printing chemicals for a few years already; kallitype, argyrotype, and so on... so, it's only natural I'd start rolling my own developers as well.
    I recommend DIY developers as well. When "Kodak" had so many issues with their developers last year (Xtol, D-76 and Dektol) I decided to buy the component ingredients (ArtCraft) and make my own, as needed. I've been very happy with making D-76 and D-23 from scratch. It takes a few minutes to measure everything, but its far from difficult, and as a reward you get chemistry you KNOW you can trust.

  3. #23
    wclark5179's Avatar
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    Re: D-76; Mixing Small Batch?

    Just an idea that works for me.

    I use empty 2 liter soda bottles to store my stock developing solutions. The plastic doesn’t react with the chemicals and the lid seals it over and over. There are 3.7 liters to a gallon. I store the bottles in a lower level bathroom cabinet which is dark and low temps. You can even use a green colored bottle if you wish like 7Up. I use the clear bottles. You can even find some sodas in one liter bottles. Easy to clean and reuse.

  4. #24

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    Re: D-76; Mixing Small Batch?

    Ah yes, I generally use 1L plastic seltzer bottles for storing my mixed Perceptol and Microphen, and they've worked out very well. I put my Pyrocat HD in 100mL amber glass bottles, which seemed a wiser choice for that.

    Speaking of Perceptol and Microphen, these are two of my favorite developers at the moment, and I'd be interested in making my own from scratch if possible. Can anyone direct me to recipes for them, or at least give more info about what kind of developers they are? I have Steve Anchell's Darkroom Cookbook, but I'm unsure which recipes would be closest to these. I've gotten some ideas from the reading, but I'd like to know more specifically.

  5. #25

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    Re: D-76; Mixing Small Batch?

    Quote Originally Posted by martiansea View Post
    Ah yes, I generally use 1L plastic seltzer bottles for storing my mixed Perceptol and Microphen, and they've worked out very well. I put my Pyrocat HD in 100mL amber glass bottles, which seemed a wiser choice for that.

    Speaking of Perceptol and Microphen, these are two of my favorite developers at the moment, and I'd be interested in making my own from scratch if possible. Can anyone direct me to recipes for them, or at least give more info about what kind of developers they are? I have Steve Anchell's Darkroom Cookbook, but I'm unsure which recipes would be closest to these. I've gotten some ideas from the reading, but I'd like to know more specifically.
    Perceptol is D-23 with the addition of Sodium Chloride. Try this: Metol 5grms, Sodium Sulphite 100 grms, Sodium Chloride 30 grms, Water 1 liter (distilled)

  6. #26

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    Re: D-76; Mixing Small Batch?

    Quote Originally Posted by martiansea View Post
    Ah yes, I generally use 1L plastic seltzer bottles for storing my mixed Perceptol and Microphen, and they've worked out very well. I put my Pyrocat HD in 100mL amber glass bottles, which seemed a wiser choice for that.

    Speaking of Perceptol and Microphen, these are two of my favorite developers at the moment, and I'd be interested in making my own from scratch if possible. Can anyone direct me to recipes for them, or at least give more info about what kind of developers they are? I have Steve Anchell's Darkroom Cookbook, but I'm unsure which recipes would be closest to these. I've gotten some ideas from the reading, but I'd like to know more specifically.
    Perceptol is roughly:

    5g/l metol
    100g/l sodium sulfite
    25-30g/l sodium chloride

    Microphen is similar to ID-68, which is a published formula - easy to find.

  7. #27
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: D-76; Mixing Small Batch?

    There are some other ingredients listed on present Perceptol boxes. And certainly at higher dilutions it doesn't behave like D23. Actually, I never found them quite similar at any dilution. But if I might be permitted to say so without offending anyone's intelligence, sodium chloride is not synonymous with table salt, which actually has added ingredients like not only iodine, but titanium dioxide whitener, just like toothpaste and house paint.

  8. #28

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    Re: D-76; Mixing Small Batch?

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    There are some other ingredients listed on present Perceptol boxes. And certainly at higher dilutions it doesn't behave like D23. Actually, I never found them quite similar at any dilution. But if I might be permitted to say so without offending anyone's intelligence, sodium chloride is not synonymous with table salt, which actually has added ingredients like not only iodine, but titanium dioxide whitener, just like toothpaste and house paint.
    Packaged Perceptol also contains sodium tripolyphosphate but that’s just a chelating agent, not photographically active.

  9. #29
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: D-76; Mixing Small Batch?

    I'd have to tear open a new box. Some of that info is written on the inside. And I threw away the last box of early formula once it got as hard as a brick, although I pounded the caked powder apart enough to soak it into solution, and it actually worked perfectly fine, thirty years after I bought it! An "un-chelating agent" in that case would be synonymous with a jackhammer.

  10. #30

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    Re: D-76; Mixing Small Batch?

    I used to make up Microphen (ID-68?) from scratch when I did theatrical photography using 35mm Tri-X... Gave me a true push to EI800 with very fine grain, contrast range that a spot lit figure and a non-spotlit figure in same frame could both be printed together with detail in both, exceptional shadow detail, very good sharpness, and tonality like it was shot with a SG 4X5... Used the Tri-X after 2475 Recording film was not availible anymore and needed a faster film... Didn't like the fast Tmax, and the Tri-X behaved like a slower film with a higher EI...

    Order an older copy of British Journal of Photography yearbook (very cheap) at a used bookstore or online, and go to the appendix in the back for the color and B/W formula section for the recipes for the FX series of developers... Only issue might be many formulas will require an EI adjustment as a standard when you shoot/develop with them.. Another good source is Camera & Darkroom magazine had a compendium of formula edition, and if you can find the old Dignan newsletters were very informative... The Darkroom Cookbooks are useful, but some errors here and there from bad copying, but you can cross-reference the formula you want to try on the net...

    That will keep you busy for a long while...

    Steve K

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