Pyrocat-HD questions

I'm getting ready to start testing/playing with pyrocat-hd, and I had

a couple of questions. I was reading Sandy King's article on

unblinkingeye.com, and he advises to use the slowest speed on a jobo

processor to avoid general stain, or to add sodium sulfite to help

combat this. I'll be using a jobo cpe2, which has only one speed,

75rpm. Does this qualify as slow enough, or should I also order some

sodium sulfite? One other related question I had was the min.

developer per sheet (I'll be using 4x5 sheets). I've heard a

recomendation of both 75ml and 50ml per sheet. Would 50ml per sheet be

exausted with extneded development (N+1 or N+2), or is 75 just a

little more conservative? I use a 2521 tank, and the table on the side

lists 270ml (IIRC) so 50ml per sheet would work well, but 75ml would

be a rather full tank, and the motor on the cpe2 isn't terribly strong

(though I've had no problems in the past). Thanks very much for any

anwsers anyone might have.

 

Peter

IME, it may depend on the kind of film you intend to use. I have found that for

whatever reasons, Kodak TriX and Tmax400 seem to much more susceptible to

general staining and developer oxidation effects than do Ilford FP4 and HP5. So if

you're doing Ilford films, you may be fine. Kodak films - well - I would try testing it

before doing a critical shot.

 

Volumes - I figure a minimum of 250ml for an 8x10, so 75 ml/4x5 should be plenty

good.

For what its worth, I recently tested some of these same films with PyroCatHD, and found that as far as visible staining goes, Bergger 200 got colored the most by it, followed by TMax 400. Ilford FP4+ displays the least amount of discernable stain, but for whatever reason, is practically grainless.