Agfa B&W Hobby Kit

Do you guys still have this? i had it but i used up the agefix and

neutol plus. i got another agefix and i prefer ilford multigrade for

my paper.

Marko

Marko,

If at 13yoa, you have tried every paper available, tested against your "defined standards", and have settled on Ilford MG paper, why on earth are you asking about the Agfa b&w hobby kit?

At some near point, there is no acceptable answer you can give to sustain trying to help you in your endeavors.

If you've wasted Agfa papers and Neutol with your (seemingly) useless whims, that is that much less that serious photographers could have used of those limited resources.

Please do us all a favor, and follow the advice of nearly 99% of the replies, and stick with ONE film, ONE developer, and ONE paper, for at least a year, experimenting with everything you can imagine to answer your questions about every little detail of every little thing.

It's hard to explain so many films to you, when you don't even understand at least ONE thoroughly. The variables are endless.

How is one supposed to know what one film, one developer and one paper unless they play? Once you play you find the limitations of what you've chosen and can move on. Or not...who cares?

And what is wrong with playing around with this stuff? Some people learn best by trying.

Marko, I'm not positive, but I doubt this kit is still around considering Agfa's current state.

Marko, there's nothing wrong with experimenting: I do it all the time with color film developing, and I have a blast!

Incidentally, I saw your tomato photo at:

http://www.photo.net/photo/4365020 and it's quite nice!

One tip I can give you is to buy your fixer in large quantities, as it becomes very inexpensive that way (like in 10, 20, or even 50 liter sizes). Here in the USA, concentrate to make 5 gallons (19 liters) of film fixer is $7.95, and 25 gallons (95 liters) is $32.95. Then, just dilute film fixer by half for fixing paper.

There's nothing "magical" about conventional fixers when used in the home darkroom: They are like bottled water, all pretty much the same.

Cheers! Dan

[PS: The exception is C-41RA (rapid access color film process) fixer, but unless your supplier also supplies minilabs, they will not stock it.]

"Kirk Teetzel , may 17, 2006; 05:55 a.m.

How is one supposed to know what one film, one developer and one paper unless they play? Once you play you find the limitations of what you've chosen and can move on."

Kirk, the problem is, Marko doesn't "play around" with any ONE film/developer combination long enough to in fact learn what it can & can't do for him, before ("moving on")jumping in with another question about a totally different type of film he's decided to use (which is now also his "favorite").

From his latest postings, it's clear he doesn't even understand how temperature is controlled, as he measures the temp of the ROOM rather than the CHEMISTRY. That alone could be 1 reason he's not been satisfied with his results.

The advice given was in state of fact, LEARN ONE film (be it Tri-X, HP5+, Neopan 400, or whatever) by using ONLY IT FOR AT LEAST A YEAR.

"Play" with different developers & dillutions, to LEARN what each will or won't do for you.

I know this younger generation thinks differently. I've been in the darkroom for nearly 40 years, and have used this method to its full extent accordingly.