Hey,
This is just out of curiosity... are there any developers similar to PQ? In regards of strength, character and content? I use PQ mainly for black and white reversal development.
Cheers
Peter
Hey,
This is just out of curiosity... are there any developers similar to PQ? In regards of strength, character and content? I use PQ mainly for black and white reversal development.
Cheers
Peter
Try this.
The vastness of options particularly when you open the door to mixing ones own chemistry is simply enormous. Add to that the subjectiveness of varying degrees of "get an improvement in this area and sacrifice something at the other end" and you can easily spend many months in a circular iteration. Murphys Algorithm #5. The end of an extensive inquisitive iteration in pursuit of "a better tool" usually leads the individual back to where they started the journey. Been there and done that and threw out the various chemicals I bought that I know now I no longer need.
The ability to be up and printing with PQ in two minutes from a concentrate and the marvelous results it produces lets me buy it in the gallon bottles with one constantly in reserve. For me LF and ULF is about efficiency from exposure to finished print and PQ is an integral part of that process IMHO.
FWIW, I use ID-62 quite a lot as a print developer (the developer Raghu Kuvempunagar linked to above) and find it very similar to Bromophen and the old Zone VI developer. I haven't ever used it for film or for reversal processing. Maybe someone here can compare Bromophen to Universal PQ?
Best,
Doremus
Thanks,
I'm probably not going down the mixing-chemicals-myself road. The Ethol LPD seems interesting though. I have the impression that Tetenal Dokumol serves a similar purpose, but I have no idea regarding their similarities in content.
Cheers
Peter
Tin Can
I also used to use Ilford PQU for reversal and for processing direct positive paper. I found, though, especially with DPP it needs to be sparkling fresh, even week old developer would seem to lose effectiveness and really got fedup with it. I found similar comments on various boards and learned that Ilford PQ is formulated using Dimezone-S which apparently goes off quicker that Phenidone. I have now switched to Fotospeed PD5 which is phenidone based and haven't had the same issues.
When I first began experimenting with reversal I used Champion Suprol because it was cheap but tended to produce more warm toned slides.
For reversal processing, a contrasty process developer is generally used, as the film Dmax gets low after bleaching due to depth removal of silver, so an energetic semi-line developer is used for max black...
I have posted before that B/W reversal is difficult to shoot in a variety of lighting situations due to a pronounced "reciprocity" effect at different common outdoor light levels, it rough on metal and plastic processing gear, and is toxic...
I think one is better off shooting a normal neg, and contact printing a dupe from it, and development in a vigorous semi line dev instead...
Steve K
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