Refrigerating Chemicals

[adam_klaum]

Hello all,

 

Sorry for the newbie question. I am about to start developing my own B&W film

and I have a concern over temperature. The water coming out of the tap is never

anywhere near 68 (not that I would want to use my tap water anyway). I have

heard and seen a lot about water baths, ice, and monkeying around to try and

cool things down to the right temperature. Is it possible to simply refrigerate

all of the mixed chemicals over night and then the next day take them out and

let them "come up" to the right temperature? Will refrigeration negatively

affect them? I'm using D-76, Kodak Fixer, Kodak Hypo Clearing, Kodak Indicator

Stop and Photoflo.

 

Adam

[jordan_w.]

The problem with refrigerating your mixed chemicals is that a lot of the substances in developer, fixer, etc. may crystallize when cooled. (Most substances are more soluble in warm/room-temp water than in cold water.)

 

Unfortunately I think that the cool water bath may be your best bet.

[mike_earussi1]

Unless your water is excessively hot (80+) you can just compensate by altering the developing time. The general rule of thumb is a 30 second decrease for each 2 degrees F increase in temperature.

[James G. Dainis]

Since these are mixed ahead of time, the chemicals would all be at room temperature to start. If room temperature is in the low 70s, I would just use the stop bath, fixer and hypo clearing agent at that temperature.

 

For the D-76, I assume you would use it at 1:1, one part water to one part D-76. The water you would refrigerate. You probably already buy one gallon jugs of drinking water anyway. Then if you have 250ml of D-76 at 74 degree room temperture, you would heat some water to 62 degree and mix 250ml of that with the 250ml of D-76 to get 500ml at 68 degrees. Use the rest of the water, heated a bit more, to mix with the photo-flo.

[scott_kinkade]

Adam...

 

If you dilute your developer at processing (1+1 or 1+4, for example,) you can try my method: add room temperature water to the full amount of concentrate to get half the total volume required, and measure the temperature. If the temperature is above or below the target temperature, prepare the rest of the water to be the same difference in the opposite direction. For example, if you need 1000ml of diluted developer, take however much concentrate you need and add water to make 500ml. Take the temperature, and if it's, say, 17C, and that's 3 degrees below your target of 20C, then make the second batch of water 23C and add that to bring the total to 1000ml. Note that you're not adding the first half of the water and then the second half of the water...rather, you're adding water to make half the volume, then adding more water to make the full volume. This method allows me to fiddle with the temperature of water rather than the chemical itself. It always sounds more complicated to explain than it is in practice, I assure you.

 

I don't worry about doing the same with the other chemicals, as long as they are within a few degrees.

[scott_kinkade]

Alternately, you could just read James' post, in which he gave identical advice 53 minutes earlier and several sentences shorter.

[leon_yuhanov]

1-grab a piece of ice and wrap it in gladwrap

2-wrap that in a lock tight bag

3-drop it in your solution and stir!

 

I found this works better then an ice bath, which takes too long

 

Leon

[adam_klaum]

Thanks for the replies and ideas. I did some testing last night and found that it takes about 2 hours for 1L of water to rise from 55 deg. to 62 deg in my house. Our house is a pretty constant 73 degrees. So if I keep some water refrigerated and some out in the room I can get a pretty good mix (after two hours) to get me to 68-69 deg.

 

Ha ha Scott, I'll always take two explanations of the same process!

[jordan_w.]

73 F is fine for processing. Why not do everything at that temp?

[James G. Dainis]

If he did the processing at 73 degrees, he would have to use the D-76 straight If it is at 73 degrees, 5 degrees about 68, then he would have to raise his refrigerated water to 63 degrees, 5 degrees below 68 to get a 1:1 mix of 68 degrees.

[adam_klaum]

Well wait a minute here. Could I do everything at 73 deg? I don't have to refrigerate my water. I could just have it all sitting out. Why would I have to use D-76 stock? Can't you adjust 1:1 development times as well? The D-76 package says time for 1:1 is 9 1/2 min. at 68 deg. for Professional T-MAX 100. So if I go by the rule stated earlier I subtract 30 sec. for every 2 degrees. So that would be 8 min. 15 sec. at 73 deg. right?

 

I am doing film speed tests for this round of negatives so whatever process I use is going to be my standard process for this camera, with this lens, with T-MAX 100 developed in D-76 1:1.

[adam_klaum]

Actually this seems to say it all:<br><br>

 

<a href="http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/j78/j78.jhtml?id=0.1.16.14.30.4.7.4.4&lc=en#003a">Kodak D-76 Publication</a><br><br>

 

Says 7 1/2 min. at 72 deg with 1:1. So maybe 7 min. even at 73 deg.? Seems like they are subtracting a full minute for each 2 deg.<br><br>

 

One thing that is really confusing to me is that they have two different T-MAX 100s listed:<br><br>

 

T-MAX 100 Professional

PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100<br><br>

 

These have pretty different development times. How do I know which one I have? Is one older or discontinued? The D-76 package says that the "PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100" has a film code of "100TMX". My film box says "1.100TMX 120 ISO 100", so is this what I have?

[adam_klaum]

Sorry to confuse. Tap water is out of the equation at this point. I will either have distilled water in the fridge or distilled water sitting out. If I can do everything at 73 deg. Then it will all be sitting out. So every component of the process is going to be at 73 deg.

[James G. Dainis]

Wasn't there a sheet giving development times/temperatures enclosed with the film or written on the inside of the box?

[adam_klaum]

*Smacking forehead* but of course! Yes inside the film box it says 9 1/2 min. for D-76 1:1. So according to Kodak's website that means I have "PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100" not "T-MAX 100 Professional". Good grief...

[frank.schifano]

Yes, you can process film at 73 deg. F., no problem. In fact, anthing from about 65 to 80 will work just fine. All you need to do is adjust your development time, and that's easy. Go here: http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/2006210208211880.pdf. Download the document. Print it and tack it up onto the wall. Use it. It works a treat for MQ developers like D-76. Works well for phenidone/ascorbate developers like XTOL too. Keep all the solutions at about the same temperature and you are good to go.

[adam_klaum]

Just for kicks I took Kodak's table and charted the values for my film and developer. So with simple interpolation I can get an idea of development times for all temps between 65 and 75. Looks to me like 7 minutes at 73 deg.<br><br>

 

<img src="http://www.sirensongboutique.com/temp/image001.gif">

[larrydressler]

I set my chems for film in the beaker or bottle that I am about to use in the frig with a digital in the Developer then when it hits the magic 20C I start..... I use tap water bath and fixer at room temp never more than 25C. but this is only with B&W..... Color I have a Seperate mini Frig I use......

 

Wash water is always tap then a soak with adjatation for 1-2 minutes in distilled water. then a 3 minute still soak.

 

Larry<div></div>

[adam_klaum]

A freshly developed roll of 35mm is hanging right behind me drying. The 120 roll has already been processed, dried, cut and stored in sleeves.

 

Let me just say....I'm hooked!!!

 

What a rush pulling those negatives out and actually seeing images on them. WOO HOO!

 

Turns out my basement is 68 deg. So I put everything down there last night after mixing.

 

So I'm feeling pretty smug :-) this was a lot of firsts for me:

 

1. First time I ever loaded film onto a reel (no I didn't practice with junk rolls first, probably should have but it went off without a hitch, both the 120 and the 35mm)

 

2. First time I ever developed film of any kind.

 

3. First time I ever used a medium format camera (newly acquired Yashica 124G).

 

4. First time I ever conducted a film speed test.

 

etc. etc. etc.

 

So I'm pretty excited. Thank you all for your advice and help!

[jordan_w.]

Glad to hear it went well. I develop 60-70 rolls of B&W film each year and I still don't get tired of seeing the images as I unspool the film from the reel...