Possible failure of Pyrocat-MC?

[sergei_antonov]

Hello, everyone!

 

I just got kit with two bottles of Pyrocat-MC (in glycol) from digitaltruth.com. I tried it last evening on HP5, using

recommented times in Jobo. Film sheets came out blank. OK, I decided that it could be my mistake, it may be not exposed,

etc. Today I tried it again on TMY using recommended time (9 min @70F) in Jobo. Film came out with traces of image,

almost blank, but it is visible that it was exposed. I used different lenses, it cannot be that all my shutters suddenly stopped to

work.

Developer has very dark lavender kind of color after processing. I did 2 min prewash, so it is not a film. I used chemicals

immediately after preparing the solution, and it had light yellowish color.

Is it possible that I got outdated or bad developer from the vendor? Did anyone experience this kind of failure?

 

Thanks,

Sergei

[patrick_gainer]

Never did. The color after processing is due to oxidation and will happen even when both solutions are good.

 

Are you sure you used the proper amount of the B solution? Try again with a snip of film in room light. It should get

pretty dark (the film, not the room) after 3 minutes. If That doesn't work, mix some fresh B solution. It should be a

nearly saturated solution of sodium carbonate. For this snip test you can put a standard bunch of washing soda in a

cup of water and use the part that dissolves. If this blackens the exposed snip, the trouble is in B. If it still is sluggish

or doesn't work, the trouble is in A.

[sergei_antonov]

I mixed concentrates 1:1:100, as described in the instruction. Should I use more concentrate(s)? Then instruction is incorrect. Sure, I will try this film snip before I call to vendor.

 

Thanks,

Sergei

[sergei_antonov]

I am back with bad news. It was certainly failure of developer, which is unfortunate. It blackens film in snip test, but keep

failing when used for real processing. So far it worked only with Foma 200, I used 1:1:100 7min @22C in Jobo it produced

at least some result, all other films went to garbage: HP5, Efke 100, TMAX400. I also found number of reports on APUG

forums where people experienced the same kind of failures. So I think it doesn't worth my time and money to continue with

this product -- it is not reliable. I don't know if it is issues with QC in PhotoFormulary, or bad batch that I got, but now I am

sure that it is not my mistake, I use number of other developers in the same conditions without any troubles.

 

--Sergei