Devoloping Time Ilford FP4 Plus and Ilfosol S

[alberto greco]

Yesterday I developed my first roll of FP4 with Ilfosol S.

 

I strictly followed the guidelines provided by Ilford for such film (4 minutes

at 21? (celsius), diluition 1:9 and 10 seconds of agitation every minute). The

negs came out too bright (the "ILFORD FP4 PLUS" written is barely readable).

 

I really do not have any clue as what was wrong. Do you have any suggestions?

 

THX

 

Alberto

 

P.s. the film has also had a stop bath and it has been fixed with an Agfa

fixer.

[eric friedemann]

If you are shooting FP4 at the manufacturer's ISO of 125 and you are developing in a 1:9 solution of Ilfosol S at 20 Degrees C, the processing time is 6.5 minutes, not 4 minutes. Even if you used 21 Degrees C for your developer temp, 4 minutes would still leave you with underdeveloped negatives:

 

 

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/2006216122447.pdf

[Uncle Goose]

Yep, time is too short.

[john_shriver]

Also, Ilfosol S is not known for good shelf life.

[pete_andrews10]

I second the vote for exhausted Ilfosol. Once opened, Ilfosol has a shelf life of about 6 months maximum, and even sealed and unopened it will fail after about two years. So make sure your stock is fresh.

 

The telltale sign that Ilfosol is past its best is the colour of the diluted solution. Good Ilfosol should be no more than a pale lemon yellow when diluted 1+9. If it's dark yellow to orange, then don't risk it.

[nick_jones5]

I have just developed my 1st roll of FP4 using Ilfosol s and used 4 mins (1+9) as per the little fold out booklet stuck to the develop bottle.

 

I have now done some web research at the Ilford site which recomends 6.5 mins @ 20C.

 

My negs came out a little dark but otherwise fine (they probably got a little more than 4 mins in reality)

 

The little booklet on the bottle also has a number in brackets (6) but it is not clear from any text what this 2nd figure relates to. Could someone let me know?

 

Nick