Thanks for the reference, Paul, and good, conservative advice, Michael.
In the document Paul referenced it says this: "But obviously any solution A with 100 grams of sulfite in it has enough alkalinity that it can function as a developer without the addition of further accelerator. So when films are in the above solution A’s, they aren’t just absorbing developing agent and waiting for solution B to provide enough alkalinity to begin development--they are developing the film." I can verify this via a funny story.
My level of expertise and experience are pretty low, so this two-bath thing is quite an adventure for me. In the past, when developing roll film, I've agitated in a canister, then completely removed the spool to pass it through a stop bath (in a yogurt container), then put it in another canister for fixing, so I had never poured solutions into or out of a canister. When testing on some rolls I shot around the house, I was once pouring out solution A with the lights on, and the whole lid fell off! I scrapped that test at that point, but looked at the film and saw that quite a bit of development had taken place in Bath A.
Bookmarks