daniel_keating1

Recently I came upon a posting for a no sulfite developer using baking soda, lye drain opener, vitamin c and phenidone. The quantity of phenidone is so small that you use .4 grams (yes .4) to 50ml of alcohol. To make 250ml of stock solution you extract .65ml of that concentrate with the other chems and then you dilute it 1+3 for film!! By my calculations I'll get 37,000 rolls of film out of that 50 grams of Phenidone at a cost of .00005 cents per roll for that chemical. I think I have some phenidone I can share with friends

I'mk glad you stuck with it Erik and it bugs me a bit the nay-sayers in earlier comments--you are wasting your time/film...why bother --that sort of thing. For anyone else stumbling upon this thread I picked up a 5 liter jug of the g101c for $20 USD and use 5ml for a roll of film in a 250ml single reel tank. The quick math on this is 1000 rolls of development out of that jug at a cost of .02 cents per roll. Dev times run 10-15 mins per roll depending on brand/speed. Yes originally it's designed for rapid access high temp/hi speed litho stuff but we dilute and use room temp and longer times. It's no mystery that this stuff is hydroquinone & sodium sulfite. Dont be afraid to experiment if the price is right but at the same token don't risk your friends wedding shots on questionable juice.--thats just common sense Photography is all about experimentation.

<p>I used a sourcing site called Look Chem and put an offer to buy Pyrocat by the kilo, with shipping to the US and paypal acceptance. I got various bids high to low. I received a Kilo via DHL for $75 from China (37.50 per pound). Amazon has the sodium metabisulfie for about $8 a pound and the sodium carbonate I get as Arm & Hammer wash soda in the detergent aisle at Walmart for about $4 for a 3LB box.<br> I mix only a small bottle 50ml by using 12.5 grams pyrocatechol and 1 gram sodium metabisulfite--the rest of the powdered stuff is in mason jars.<br> I did a cost analysis and it costs me 8/10ths of a penny per roll of film in total developer costs</p>

<p>if anyone else stumbles on this old thread try this: The concentrate I bought is a gallon that makes 5 gallons of xray working solution--dilute that further by 1:8 for consumer 35mm film. That gives you an overall ratio of 1:40 from the main concentrate. I pull 6ml of that to do a 250ml single nikor tank and process for 10 minutes at room temp and I get pretty good results<img src=" alt="" /></p>

<p>The notion that one shouldn't use xray dev for film is nonsense. That being said not every film can be developed in rodinal stand at 1:100 for an hour. Most can, some will not show well. It's a matter of experimentation. I bought a gallon of xray dev concentrate that makes 5 gallons of working xray dev. I diluted that down 8 more parts. This yields 40 gallons of 35mm dev. I don't mix 40 gallons at once of course. I do a 1:40 ratio and pull 6ml of concentrate for a 250ml single nikor tank. I have tested old GAF super Hypan (expired 1973) and Svema Kn4-s expired in 1982 and both processed well at 10 min times at room temp. The gallon cost $14.95 +6 shipping so $21. Divide the $21 gallon by the 6ml per roll and thats about 630 rolls at .03 cents a roll developer cost.<img src=" alt="" /><br> Is there more grain? a little, best to overexpose by 1/2 a stop or a wee bit more to not risk an under that will accentuate the grain</p>

<p>I bought a 645 model just recently and had to send it back---they marked the body 645, they put in the mask for the 6x4.5 in the film plane but they didn't change the gearing!! It was advancing 6cm leaving wide spaces between frames and only getting 12 shots per roll. So I had to incur another $35.00 to ship it back to the Ukraine. I have not received the camera back but it's only been 2 weeks since I returned it.<br> If this were a US company or had local distribution I'd be expecting them to issue a "call tag" for a factory defect like this.<br> For the money spent I could have pieced together a mamiya & a bronica from KEH (which I have done) but I also liked my old Kiev 6C & was willing to splurge to get one that was "new"</p>

<p>PS to above post...here is a shot from my measured out powder</p><div></div>

<p>Here is what I do... Shake the powder in the bag--knead it or place in larger gallon ziplock and give it a tumble to blend it. I purchased a small digital "drug dealer" scale from amazon for about $7. I measure out 1.6 gr per oz of water for D76 (16gr for 10oz/300ml tank)--this factoring a 1:1 dilution. For a stock solution it's 3.2gr per oz of water. A gallon mix of fixer is 700grams and does 100 rolls. 7 grams per 300ml water for a one shot. Keep partial powder mixes in air-bled ziplocks.</p>