<p>About two years ago I was going to take the ascorbic acid developer plunge. I collected quite a few intertube pages and kept them. Also around that time I mixed up a PC/water concentrate, using the classic 1:40 ratio of Phenidone to Ascorbic Acid. I tossed it into my freezer and forgot about it. <br> <br />Fast forward, got tired of everyone with $1K and a digital camera is now a "photographer." ("What's an f/stop?") Got my old Ricoh's fired up, took film out of the frozen and lead lined vault, and am now shooting for test color neg which I'll process, and conventional B&W. <br> I thawed out my PC concentrate and tested the pH, 3.1. (Digital meter, zero'd with pH 7.0 calibrating lab water.) I put 60ml of that into the beaker, so now I have .15g Phenidone and 6g ascorbic acid. I decided to go with 4.5g Kodalk for the alkali. I came up with this from Michael Madio' experience with 18g borax, using my extensive references to equate about 4:1 borax:Kodalk for an equivalent pH.<br> The pH is only 5.1! <br> Gainer suggests 5g sodium carbonate, that should, again per above Haist reference, less than a 2:1 difference from Kodalk. Yes, I understand that's significant, but since I'm only at pH5.1, I don't even see an over ph7 on the horizon! And these matters are not linear.<br> So, does ascorbic acid work at a much lower pH? I've seen no reference to pH of the developers. Xtol uses a reasonable quantity of Kodalk. Am I missing something? <br> FWIW, the Haist reference refers to research that shows equivalent densities from 1 unit of sodium hydroxide, 3 of sodium carbonate, 5 of Kodalk, or 20 or borax.<br> Sure, I'll try a test strip in daylight, but I thought I'd shout out.</p> <p> </p>