H&W Control developer recipe?

[steve__2]

I've seen several old references for a film/ developer combination for H&W Control. I think the film was microfilm. It was to have excellent resolution/ edges in the film. Any information, reference, archive? Thanks, Steve

[ed b.]

Can you provide any more information? I have an extensive library of

old formularies and other books, but have never heard of this.

[ed b.]

I finally found a few references for it. It was called H&W Control

and was a proprietary formula that was often used to develop

Technical Pan film and Kodak High Contrast Copy Film. It was

produced in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. H&W is no longer made.

Apparently H&W Control would give 100 ASA with Tech Pan(?). There

was also an H&W Control Film, which was reputed to be Agfa microfilm

perforated and respooled--it too is no longer made.

 

<p>

 

Possible substitutes would be Ethol TEC, Kodak Technidol, Beutler,

POTA, etc.

[pete_andrews]

Given the microfilm connection, and the 100 ISO rating of Tech-pan, I

think it's more likely that this was a normal to high contrast

developer. Probably something more like ID2 or D-19. (Are either of

those made anymore?)

[peter_mcdonough1]

In the early 1970's I used both the film and the developer. It's

recommended asa was 80, although I found 40 to be more realistic. Its

ability to produce grainless 16x20 prints from a 35mm negative was

much appreciated. The H&W film was indeed Agfa microfilm. It also had

the most beautiful delicacy in tonal range. Nothing could even come

close to its combination of super sharpness and wide tonal range

until Tech-Pan film/developer came around. I once saw a 30x60

enlargement that had been made from a minox negative-astoundingly

sharp and grainless. The photo was of an old bearded scholar reading

a Greek text. Beautiful!

[mike__3]

i used the film and developer for approximately 10 years for close up

and some macro work. at one time in the 70s i was considered to be

some sort of expert in the use of the film and developer. i is to bad

it is no longer around. one of the techniques you could use was

called still development. that process produced negatives with no

grain.

[david_foy2]

Harold Holden and Arnold Weichert patented a phenidone-based, ultra-

low contrast developer in the late 1960's, and in 1972 they offered

it for sale with repackaged Agfa Copex Pan Rapid microfilm, in 35mm

cartridges and on 120 spools. The brand name was "H&W Control VTE

Panchromatic Film" and they stated on their instruction sheet that it

was the Agfa film noted above. "VTE" stood for Very Thin Emulsion. In

experiments that preceeded the patent, they got good results with

copy films at about ISO 25-40, and with microfilms at 50-80. They

rated the Agfa film they sold at 80.

 

<p>

 

The formula is in the public domain. Apparently today's Gigabit

product from Germany behaves identically (which does not prove it is

identical). Since 35mm perfed microfilms don't exist any more except

wherever Gigabit get theirs, experimenters are limited to Minox or

16mm subminiature equipment. I have experimented extensively with the

formula and several 16mm microfilms, and the interactions of thin

base, thin emulsion, clear emulsion (very disconcerting!) and a

development process utterly unlike standard processing is, well,

let's say, a fruitful field for on-going research. I have projected a

12x18mm neg to approximately 1x1.3m feet on the wall, and made a

print of a part of the image, and even at that magnification, grain

does not degrade the image. I have samples of a similar image on

display at my commercial site

(http://www.frugalphotographer.com/microfilm_examples.htm).

 

<p>

 

Microfilms achieve their purpose, which is a stark black image on a

stark clear background, with no gray, through massive underexposure

and overdevelopment. That's why document copying is usually done at

relatively fast shutter speeds (ratings of 200 or more are not

unusual) and A/B type chemistries that mimic lith developers. Holden

and Weichert's achievement was to reverse the situation, and, more

importantly, to find a combination of overexposure and

underdevelopment that was useful for ordinary photography. In

arriving at a useable speed range of 40 to 80, and by inventing an

almost shockingly low-contrast developer, they succeeded.

The most serious limitation of their invention is that exposures must

be exact. There is no latitude.

[ed b.]

Someone sent me a formula today that purports to be the famous H&W Control formula. I have no idea what its authenticity is, but I'd sure like to hear informed opinions about it, and if someone has enough interest to test it, I'd love to see some hard data on it.<br>

<br>

Here is the message:<br>

<br>

To make 1 liter:<br>

Hot distilled water 300 ml 60 deg c [140 deg F!]<br>

Sodium sulfite 7.6 grams<br>

Hydroquinone 1.2 grams<br>

Sodium carbonate 34.8 grams<br>

Phenidone 8.3 grams<br>

Top off with cool distilled water to make 900 ml<br>

Add 60.6 grams more sodium sulfite<br>

Add more dist water to make 1000 ml<br>

Dilute one to fifteen with dist water.<br>

Develop 11 to 15 min at 68 deg f.<br>

Agitate for 5 seconds at 3 min intervals.<br>

Do not use an acid stop bath [acetic]<br>

<br>

The above formula is exactly as I received it. Also it will give you a

one stop speed increase. Rate tech pan 40 to 50. The info below is what I found to be troublesome, and the measures that were taken to correct those problems.<br>

<br>

STREAKING: give more agitation for the first minuite--20 to 30 seconds. Presoak the film also. If this does not eliminate the streaks, subtract 100 ml water from working solution and ad 100 ml 70% isopropyl alcohol. I use sheet film--streaking may not be a problem for tank use.<br>

<br>

FOG: in normal development you will see a lot of edge fog, this is normal. Both highlights and moderate shadows will dev good. Resolution is excellent. Tonality is good for tech pan, as good as it gets anyway. Grain is good to excellent.<br>

<br>

This developer is the best that I have found considering that you get a full stop increase. Store this dev in a brown GLASS bottle absolutely air tight and in a cool place. This dev can also be used for micro film and lithographic film, with a one stop increase. I use litho 8x10 and I get a whopping push from 3 to 6 asa. At f/64 154 mm Metrogon lens, and a light yellow filter, full New Mexico sun, translates to 8 to 10 sec exposure. The stock solution must be made with distilled water, but I have found that water that is passed through a softener works just as well in the work solution. If any readers can give the history of this developer please post it. Well that is all I know about H&W. I wish to thank a guy called Gene for giving it to me, if I find any way to improve it I will write ED BUFFALOE.

[garry1]

for an overview of the H&W control results and a view of other developers of that genre' of the 70's- get hold of a copy of the 15th edition of the Leica Manual. It has a whole article with examples. No formula though.

[garry1]

Digging through old boxes last night, I found my old collection of self-saved infomation album. The H & W company had two films offered-

VTE (ASA 40) & Ultra (ASA 25). Both were respooled Agfa Copex with the perferations added. They also had two chemical products- H&W control and Maximal Developer. Control was for your Tech Pan type films and Max was for high speed processing. They claimed an ASA of 1250 for Tri-X + Maximal.

Just thought I'd pass along a little found history.

[david_foy1]

It is not possible to know what the H&W Control forumula actually was, but Holden and Weichert presented three versions of it in their patent document, and the production version was probably close to one of them. The essential feature is that whereas most hydroquinone-phenidone developers are at a ratio of something like h:p 40:1, their developer was about h:p 1:7, at a pH of about 10 (they claimed a range of 8 to 12, which is unhelpful). The action of the developer as they interpreted it was that the phenidone reduced the image while the hydroquinone continuously regenerated the phenidone. The formula Ed reproduces above is approximately what I have posted elsewhere for the benefit of subminiature photographers, and it works very well but the concentrate has a shelf life of only about 6 months. It is from the H&W patent. However, H&W's instructions packed with their films (Agfa Copex Rapid AHU (anti-halation undercoat)) gave shorter development times.

 

You could also try this one: Sodium sulfite 16.00 g, Phenidone 0.80 g, sodium carbonate 1.20 g, parformaldehyde 0.075 g, hydroquinone 0.15 g, water to make a 132 ml concentrate: add water to make 2.1 litres of working solution. I have not tried it, but H&W definitely did.

 

Based on what the Gigabit folks are publishing about development times, I withdraw my suggestion that their developer is identical to H&W. It is not.

[MTC Photography]

The state of art fine grain developer is the SPUR developer by

Heribert Schain of <a href="http://www.8x11film.com"> 8x11film.com</a>

<p> Gigabitfilm is repackaged Agfa Copex AHU microfilm <p>

<p> 35mm Agfa Copex + SPUR can enlarge to 24x36" virtuely grainless.

[mfophotos]

Found this thread while looking for info on H&W Maximal -- I

inherited a bunch of good darkroom chemicals, paper & film. In

the boxes is an unopened box of H&W Maximal High Speed

Developer. I think I'll give it a try sometime! It has all the

instructions, too.