What should PMK negs look like?

Just processed a roll of Bergger 120 in PMK and am wondering

if I messed up or if they are supposed to look thin. Previously I

shot a roll of the same film and processed it in HC110 dilution B

and got nice meaty looking negatives. The PMK negatives look

thin and have a yellow-green cast (the stain?). To the naked eye,

it looks about a stop low. Both rolls were exposed in a Mamiya

C-33 with a 135 mm f4.5. Exposure was based on a Gossen

Luna Pro in the incident mode.

There should be a stain, print them before coming to a final decision. They usually look a little different.

Sounds about right. PMK is a staining developer, so the overall cast is normal--it will mask grain somewhat--and there should be a proportional amount of yellow image stain that will give you better highlights than would be apparent from the neg, if you're used to conventional negs. Try printing before you decide to adjust your development times.

 

Bergger was running an ad in _View Camera_ magazine and other places featuring a PMK neg by Gordon Hutchings--not a bad representation, but of course it's hard to judge from a magazine reproduction.

You have not said how you exposed the film. I generally rate Bergger at 100 for processing in PMK.

I have used PMK with HP5,Delta 400 and Delta 100 and also with Neopan 400.I usually over expose 1/3 or 1/2 a stop. I get a yellow green stain stain not too dark although the stain seems to vary between different films.This afternoon I souped a role of TRI X and the stain was much darker.I'll call it dark olive. My question is this. Does TRI X always stain this Dark and is there such a thing as too much stain? I din't change my processing methods. Maybe this is a little premature. I'll make some prints tomorrow. Up to now I have been very happy with my PMK prints.I'm getting excellent shadow and highlight detail and all the grays in the middle.Although I have good results with D76 1+1,Rodinal, FX 39,Ilfotec DDX,Dixactol and Ilfosol s I think the merging of tones are slightly better with PMK. I enjoy reading all the forum postings and have gathered much information.

 

Thanks to all and much good luck

My Bergger negatives look like they've been dipped in coffee when I soup

them in PMK. But as in all things YMMV.

 

Just a thought. Once, a few months back, I forgot I was working with PMK and

didn't give my negatives enough aggitation. The negatives came out very thin

even though I gave them the correct ammount of time. PMK negatives need

aggitation every 15 seconds to build up the stain.

I process HP5+ and Bergger 200 in PMK. I shoot the HP5+ at 400 and the Bergger at 100. development is 13 min at 70 degrees F. Beautifull green/yellow stained negatives that produce excellent prints.

 

comment on too much stain:

You can over do it, in which case the stain will no longer be proportional to the silver density. This defeats the purpose of the stain. Hutchings recommends a 2 minute soak in the used developer with agitation every 30 seconds.

To follow up on my own question .... I processed two rolls of

FP-4+ 120 exposed at EI 100 for 13.5 minutes at 67f . I gave the

tank three inversions and a half twist every 15 seconds. Fixed

the film in TF-4 followed by a second developer bath for 2

minutes. These negatives are much more substantial than the

Bergger (exposed at EI 200 and given very little agitation) both in

regular negative density and stain.

When I printed them(on Agfa MCC 111 FB) my eye told me to use

a 31/2 VC filter but I decided against that. Printed straight they

are wonderful -- razor sharp, excellent smooth tones and no

grain. I ran my poor old Besler 23C to the top and printed a

piece just for grins. Total negative area print had to be

something like 24" x 24" and there is still no grain!

I am officially converted!