how much developer to use?

[jermaine_scott]

i use the patterson tank system for developing b&w film. the patterson tank

calls for using 290ml for each reel of 35mm film to be developed. i was

reading in the film developing cookbook, to use 250ml for each reel. so, if

im using kodak d76 1:1. that would be 500ml for each reel. thats 210ml more

developer. i just wanted to know if any of you use 500ml of developer and do

you see any difference? ill try it out but i just wanted to know if you saw

any difference. thanks.

[steven_palmer1]

Jermaine, they mean 250mls in total. I use 300mls per reel of 35mm film. In your case if you are using D76 1:1, use 150mls of developer and 150mls of water to make the 300 total. 300mls will ensure that the reel is fully covered and that if the tank leaks a bit (some do) then you have some room to play with.

 

Steve

[jermaine_scott]

oh yeah, i got that part. 1:1 for 150ml of dev and 150ml of water. im talking about the 500ml diluted as in the film developer cookbook. which would be 250ml of dev and 250ml of water. i wanted to know if anyone does this and do they see any real difference?

[steven_palmer1]

Forgot to answer your other question. 1:1 is 1:1, whether it be in 300mls or 500mls. The strength is still the same. Manufacturers recommend a minimum amount of developer per roll of film. This information can be found on their website. There are times when you may notice a difference but this is when you go under the amount necessary to develop the film completely. This can sometimes be a problem with very high dilution, like say 1:100 or 1:200, but people often ignore the manufacturers minimum amount and still get good results. Rodinal is an example of this. You can't do that with D76 though.

 

Steve

[ronald_moravec1]

250ml is all that is required to cover a roll in a standard stainless steel single reel tank. Patterson has a larger diameter reel/tank and also it is a little higher. The film must be covered during the rest periods between agitation and a larger volumn is required for the Paterson.

 

There will be no difference in the end as long as there is sufficient developer to cover the film. Excess developer will not change the developing so long as you do not fill the tank so much as to inhibit agitation.

 

A single reel Patterson uses 150ml D76 and 150ml water for a total of 300.

 

A single reel stainless uses 125ml each developer and water.

[fred aspen]

Jermaine,

 

I read your post and assumed you were referring to pp. 31 of the cookbook and their caution to use "at least 500 ml of developer of dilute developer" and then listed D76 1:1 as an example citing 250 ml of stock and 250 ml of water.

 

I ran into this situation with the Paterson tanks and tried both ways and didn't see any difference visually but I don't have a densitometer to verify. I do believe, though, their contention that trying to conserve on developer consumption might indeed compromise quality and consistency.

 

I think this is what you were asking but I might be wrong.

 

Ron

[frank.schifano]

So figure that 300 ml. is enough to cover the reel with a little bit to spare. That's fine. I regularly use D-76 1+1 in a similar tank. One hundred fifty ml. of stock solution + 150 ml. of water is gives plenty of active developing agents to get the job done for a single 36 exposure roll. You might even get away with as little as 125 ml. of stock solution, but that is cutting things a little too close in my estimation. If you have enough room in the tank, you can double up on these amounts and do two rolls at the same time by adding about 10% to your development time. Results are what you'd expect, that is to say good.

[profhlynnjones]

Hi Jermaine,

 

Simply use enough chemical to cover the film adequately. Also, if you are doing dilutions such as Rodinal or HC110, I always round the amount off upwards to a convenient amount for the math. for example, 290ml at 1:25 is ll.6mm (you can't get there from here), but at 300 ml, it is 12 ml which you can easily do with a small Patterson graduated cylinder.

 

Some of these figures for ml or cc's per roll are absolutely silly! Just cover the darned stuff!

 

Lynn

[john_elder1]

Best Patterson tank is the 5 roll tank. I have 2 of these and process 10 rolls per developing session. I find it to be a real time saver over doing 1 0r 2 rolls at a time.

[jermaine_scott]

thanks everyone for your answers. i always use 300ml for developing. i just wanted to know if anyone used more developer as suggested in the cookbook.

[colin jackson]

I used to use the 300 ml. per film for 1:1 D76 with no 10% time correction (per Kodak J

-78)

but after switching to double volume (I now use 500 ml. per film diluted 1:1) I seem to

have better highlights and maybe a little better shadow texture with a diffusion enlarger

on

Tri-X 400. I admit I haven't done a controlled experiment comparing single and double

volume but I am now happier with my Tri-X results. I sometimes use 10% extra time for

single volume as recommended by Kodak when running equipment tests when I'm

not too

fussy. I assume Kodak had a reason for recommending a fixed amount of stock per film.

It makes sense to me. Why wouldn't one require a fixed amount of chemistry per film

regardless of dilution?