don_karon2

The changing pH from basic developer to acid stop and back to basic TF4 is supposed to be avoided as the gelatin emulsion is said to get constricted by acid. I don't know if this is true. I could never see an effect if it in my negs.

 

I have been using TF4 for six years or so and always with plain water stop bath. No complaints from me. I have been using Ilford's quick wash scheme and have yet to see any sign of negative degradation from residual fixer.

Yes, there are several ways, all tedious IMO.

 

Any hospital radiology department has one. See if you can bribe your way in with, say, a dozen donuts for the techs. (Worked for me.)

HP5+ @ 400 in HC-110 1+63 8:00 @ 75F works nicely for me. It is the only thing I use for 6x7 negatives. I found the grain too pronounced in enlargements from 35mm and am fooling with Delta 100 for that size. My current scheme for Delta 100 is ISO 100 in HC-110 1+63 7:15 @ 75F. Each camera system, meter, agitation technique is a bit different so this developing info won't be your best but I think these will put you in the ballpark.

Ike -

 

I have no problems seeing the 75mm lens focus with the .58 viewfinder. Depth of focus should cover my errors.

 

Unasked for advice: I would suggest the 24mm as your next lens. I find I use the wide lenses more than the long ones. The full view of the .58 finder covers what the 24 sees, no additional finder necessary. Get the 75 as your third lens.

A yellow filter in daylight will help make different colors appear as the shades of grey that we expect.

 

The color sensitivity of the eye is different than that of black and white film. Our eye more or less follows the spectral mix of sunlight, peaked in green and yellow wavelengths. Film has a pretty flat curve.

 

I started using a yellow filter all the time when I noticed that red and blue (on a flag) appeared the same shade of grey in the print, where the red was much brighter (and I would have expected a paler grey) in my vision. The filter costs me a stop but the prints look more natural to me and more like I want them to.

Lawrence -

 

Here's a guess: the melting was caused by the film being in a very basic solution, surely the developer. (Stop bath and most fixers are acidic. Acid is used in fixer to harden the emulsion.) Perhaps you mixed the developer wrongly when you replenished it.

 

I believe you will get more reproducible results using a one-time developer that is mixed fresh for each batch. My preference is HC-110 as the stuff is a liquid and the undiluted syrup keeps for years. It's fairly cheap. For Delta 100 exposed at ISO 100 I use 1/2 oz of HC-110 added to 31.5 oz water, at 75F for 7'30", same agitation as you describe. This produces a Zone VIII density of about 1.15 and very little grain.

 

As for the personal comments you received: don't take it to heart. Most folks don't realize how their posts come across when the other aspects of conversation - the tone of voice, winks, nudges, facial expressions, etc. - are removed. And they aren't good enough writers to make it clear with words alone.

 

Don

HP-5+ @ 400.

Developed in HC-110 diluted 1+63 (that's dilution G, I think) 7:00 min at 75F. Plain water stop bath. Fix in TF-4 for 4 min followed by Ilford's quick-washing scheme. (This gives me about N-1 development for you Zonistas.)

Someone wrote a column in Shutterbug (I think) about a year ago addressing this question. He felt that for color prints the size difference between 645 and 6x7 was almost never noticeable unless you get to extreme enlargements.

 

For B&W, however, enlargements beyond 5x start to lose the smooth gradation of tonality that many of us strive for (me, anyway). So the added negative size of 6x7 makes a bigger difference.

 

My 2¥: Choose the camera that you like to handle.

Don't put film in checked luggage. There apparently is a new type of luggage x-ray scanner that works like a C.T. scanner - it aims a tightly collimated beam of x-rays through your bag and gives them a cross-sectional view of what's inside. The protective film bags don't provide sufficient shielding and your film can be ruined. Hand carry, and ask for hand search of the film at the airport.

Some film developers can be saved, mixed back into a large tank,

maintained with replenisher, etc. but I think that's too much hoopla

for an individual. I discard film and paper developer after each use.

For film that's just two rolls of film. For paper you can get about

25 - 30 8x10's from a tray of Dektol (which I use diluted 1:2)

 

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Stop bath and fixer can be saved. You should test your fixer after

each session (there's a little bottle of fixer test chemical that will

last about your whole life, you only use one drop) and discard fixer

as necessary. Kodak recommends a two tray fixer set-up (old fixer in

the first tray, newer fixer in the second tray, then the wash). The

fixer in the first tray goes bad first, so discard it, make the second

tray fixer the new first tray fixer and make a new batch for the

second tray.

 

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So, all in all, you have a bottle of developer, a bottle of stop bath,

and two bottles of fixer to store.

 

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In a covered tray you can leave stuff overnight, but it oxidizes and

its life is shortened. I put all the chemicals away after each

session.

 

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Kodak has a good book about setting up your own home darkroom. There

are lots of others just as good. Once you set something up and start

using it you'll do your own fine-tuning.