I've come across an article in the Nov/Dec 1994 issue of Darkroom and Camera Tec hniques called Non-chromogenic Antiscorbutic Developers for Black and White, by Patrick A. Gainer. I was interested in trying out one of his formulas, which wa s reprinted in the Jul/Aug 1996 issue of Photo Techniques magazine called Gainer 's Vitamin C film developer. The ingrediants to the formula include water, bora x, sodium hydroxide solution, ascorbic acid(vitamin c) and phenidone. I was int erested in it because except for the Phenidone I was able to purchase all the in grediants at a grocery store, it is a cheap developer dollar wise and most impor tantly to me it is supposed to be one of the most "environmentally freindly deve lopers"-as stated in the article. As the editors of the magazine also state "it yields a fairly soft working formula that produces curves on several films qui te similar to those produced by D-76. Being a sulfite free developer, however, it yields noticeably better sharpness than D-76, with very fine grain." My ques tion is has anyone had any experience using this developer with film and paper? What were your results, any comments? Regardless if anyone answers I plan on w orking with the formula and I also wanted to share this with the rest of the B/W community because of the environemntal friendliness of the formula. We need to be conscious of our use of chemicals and if anyone is interested I can post the formula, or you might be able to purchase a back issue of the magazine. Also, does anyone have other input to more environmentally friendly developers, print washers or other products of use in our photographic endevours? Any responses a re greatly appreciated. One final note, maybe such a new heading can be added t o the discussion page. Thank you for bearing my long winded comments.
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