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Can you reuse developer


dave_snay

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Hi,

 

Is it a good or bad idea to reuse HC110 dilution B for a second tank

of film? I'm thinking it should be okay for a second tank, but not a

third. I think the masters used to reuse developer, but that was a

different time and probably different chemicals.

 

thanks,

Dave

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Not if you want to expect any sort of consistency. The small amount of HC110 in a tank is pretty much exhuasted by one roll. Not worth the savings in money. If you want to be cheap, use one of the D-76 clones, one-shot.

 

Developers are no longer formulated to sit in a tank and have racks of rolls or sheets developed one after another. Kodak is discontinuing the replenishers that used to be used for that. Most of us don't do enough volume of processing to make replenishment work.

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Some developers can be reused and some can't. D-76, ID-11, XTOL, and probably some others can be if used full strength. If diluted from stock solution, no. Diafine is noted for being able to go on practically forever if you replensih it. HC-110 dilution B? Maybe, if you want to run a replenished system but this is not practical for the occasional or home user. It's cheap enough, why take the chance that the second batch will be ruined?
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Actually, there is a class of developers - two-bath or divided developers that can be re-used with little or no compromise in image quality. I would recommend looking into divided D-23 or divided D-76 (Vestal formulation) if you are determined to pursue developer re-use.

 

In fact, in addition to faciliating re-use, these developers are also known to be quite forgiving for over/under development and very useful for taming high contrast subjects.

 

The formulas for divided D-23 (aka DD-23) and divided D-76 (D-76H) should be quite easy to track down on the web.

 

I would avoid attempting to re-use HC-110B.

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It depends on the size of your tank. 250 ml of HC110 B will do a roll of film. 500 will do two. The usual 500 ml tank will hold two rolls of 35 mm. 500 ml would do two 120 rolls consecutively, but it would be better to get a tank bifg enough to hold 2 120 reels and use the 1:63 dilution, extending time accordingly.
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It's possible to reuse developer that's been diluted for one-shot use. It just isn't a good idea when best consistency is desired.

 

However, as an experiment a year or so ago, I reused a batch of Rodinal 1:50 for two or three rolls of 35mm Tri-X. Each came out fine. I don't recall whether I extended the time to compensation for developer exhaustion.

 

It satisfied my curiosity as to whether developer mixed for one-shot use could be recycled in a pinch if absolutely necessary and getting *any* result was more important than getting good results.

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I use Ilfotec DDX and Ilfosol S as one-shot developers, but I do sometimes reuse TMAX developer, in a limited way. I have a Paterson 3-reel tank, so if I have a lot of TMX or TMY to do, I mix up a litre of TMAX 1+4, do the first three at the recommended time, the second 3 at +45 seconds and the third 3 at +90 seconds, then I mix up fresh developer solution. Note that I'm not keeping the mixture for more than an hour or two. Kodak themselves say that you can do 4 films in 1 litre, then +60 seconds for the next 4, then +120 seconds for a third set of 4, giving 12 films in total. But I've never tried doing a 4th batch of 3. The negs are indistinguishable between batches.
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Also, I reuse Microphen stock solution 10 times per liter. It seems to deliver the best compromise between effective speed enhancement and fine grain. I don't adjust development times with each use to allow for any exhaustion - this doesn't seem necessary as 10 reuses seems to be fairly conservative.

 

I haven't tried recycling a batch of Microphen mixed 1:1 and probably wouldn't for anything important.

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