"Old fashioned Films"

[conrad_hoffman]

PPD is para-phenylenediamine. It's used in hair dyes, amongst other things, but it's considered a serious allergen. Stains too. Probably no worse to handle than pyro, but not a good choice for the careless. It was popular in the '30s for fine grain work, but it absolutely destroys actuance in the usual formulas. It also kills film speed. (those are somewhat negative terms- there are times when you may not want acutance or film speed) It fell out of favor as soon as D-76 became popular. The Sease formulas are the best known, where they combine it with glycin. The more glycin, the fewer problems and the coarser the grain. It's also the starting point for many color developers. I tried an old formula that used PPD and pyro from a 1938 book I like. It was pretty awful, but the fine grain properties were too good to give up. No one seemed to have experimented with ascorbic acid, so I tried a PPD/vitamin C combo. That seemed to solve the speed and acutance problems, but retained the fine grain. I've never compared it with something like Microdol-X, so I can't say it's any magic bullet, but when I hand people a couple prints, they typically prefer the PPD soup over FX2, FX37, and HC-110. This has held true for both non-photographers and very experienced black & white photographers. No idea what was popular in Germany during the '30s, but I've been told that the general path taken in Europe was different than the USA. Europe was quick to get on the high acutance developer bandwagon, whereas we've tended towards more solvent developers. OTOH, I believe there are/were several PPD formulas on the German market as well. Not really my area of expertise, I'm just passing on stuff I've been told. Anyway, my PPD formula should be in the archives right here somewhere. BTW, Anchell quotes Crawley that PPD formulas can produce inexplicably good tonal quality under some conditions. Personally, I think it looks a lot like most other developers, with the exception of the smooth and fine grain pattern. Where it also excels is scanning- very little annoying grain aliasing.

[lex_jenkins]

Nope, no experience with Agfa paper developers. I've been happy with Ilford's Multi-Universal-whatever for my RC prints and Alta ZonalPro HQ Warmtone for my fiber prints. I usually go for a warm tone to my fiber prints. If I was going to try another developer I'd want to try something known for cold tones, like Bromphen.

 

I agree entirely with the example of Olympus athletes striving to shave hundredths or even thousandths of their times with each event. On the one hand it seems almost pointlessly insignifcant. But next thing you know, you look up a few years later and this dogged incremental progress has made such a difference that we mere mortals can actually see a downhill skier, speed skater or runner going faster, even without a clock.

 

So from that perspective I understand perfectly the desire to try every available material and method that might allow us to present our work in ways that are at least fractionally distinctive from others.

[b._poetz]

When I posted my original question about "old fashioned films", I never imagined that it would

inspire such controversy and passionate feelings. This has become a very interesting and

informative thread from which I'm certain many will benefit.

 

For my money, I am satisfied with the variety of ideas presented and I believe we have

exhausted the topic for all practical purposes. Now on to the next brouhaha.

 

Thank you all for sharing your insights and thoughts.

[roman_sonnleitner1]

A minor thing to add, though - somebody from another newsgroup just pointed out to me, that it is possible to order Foma films in inch-sizes, re-branded as 'Webphota':

 

http://www.wephota.de/wephota/sortimix.htm

 

Don't know if you can get that in the US, though...

 

Now on to new topics!

[murrayatuptowngallery]

Thanks for response on film and interesting topics running from audio to radio to thermionic to photo, all bad habits of mine.

 

I will buy the cheapo film - I'm not nitpicking...I have enough problems making stoopid, oops stupid mistakes.

 

Murray