Obsidian Aqua

[Andrew O'Neill]

[j.e.simmons]

Jay always said he was only interested in taking pictures of his family, and from the pictures he showed, they seem to be light-skinned white people. I always found his developers to give good high values, but not much detail in the shadows. They seem to work well for the types of pictures he intended them for.

[paulbarden]

I was very surprised at how little low end detail was on those negatives compared to Pyrocat! You'd have to give the film another full stop of exposure to get near the same amount of shadow detail.
Thanks for doing this test, Andy. At least now I know I can let go of my curiosity about this formula. (and stick with PMK)

[Andrew O'Neill]

I was very surprised at how little low end detail was on those negatives compared to Pyrocat! You'd have to give the film another full stop of exposure to get near the same amount of shadow detail.
Thanks for doing this test, Andy. At least now I know I can let go of my curiosity about this formula. (and stick with PMK)

I shot some 8x10 HP5 a few days ago. I had to expose it at EI 160 to get shadow densities more to my liking. The negative looks great! Really sharp.

[Tin Can]

Best name for a developer

Romantic

His wife looks great in his portraits

[Andrew O'Neill]

It's definitely not a box speed developer! I've processed HP5, Rollei IR, D100, D400, and Pan F to confirm this.... but I still like it! Bloody sharp, even with conventional agitation methods, 5 sec per minute.

[Michael R]

Not much in a name. Junk developers one after another.

Best name for a developer

Romantic

His wife looks great in his portraits

[paulbarden]

Not much in a name. Junk developers one after another.

Wow, that's a bit cynical, isn't it?

[Michael R]

Wow, that's a bit cynical, isn't it?

Cynical, yes. It is trivial to make something that will develop an image of some sort, but these half baked concoctions offer nothing but disadvantages. If I give staining developers the benefit of the doubt for the moment, there are really only a few ‘modern’ formulas worth peoples’ consideration. There’s Pyrocat (catechol) and there’s PMK (or Wimberley’s - which is what PMK was based on).

[Andrew O'Neill]

Michael have you actually used Obsidian Aqua? I wouldn't call it half baked. I wouldn't use it when film speed is important and one needs to push develop, but I certainly would when enhanced sharpness is desired. 510-Pyro is also a very good developer. My favourite is Pyrocat-HD as it hits all my needs and has so for over 20 years.