Darkroom: ID11 is go!

The weather today is wet – very wet, the sort of day where it’s good to stay in and do some developing! Knowing this was going to be the case, I mixed up my box of ID11 last night – so it had overnight to brew (permeate the solution). I decided I’d mix it to 1050ml rather than the one litre. For two 35mm films I like to use 600ml, although the tank thinks 580ml is enough. 600ml has more wriggle room, covers the films with more spare, and frankly is much easier number to mix! At 1+3 150ml plus 450ml water gives me my 600ml. 1050ml divided by 150ml = 7, so as a one shot developer that’s 14 films.

I’ve used Ilford’s ID11 before but not for decades, maybe 30 years. It’s also that long since I’ve mixed up a powdered developer – not that it’s difficult. For the record I measured out 700ml of de-ionised water. In my year of “using up” I had it lurking already so figured that was something else I could/should use up. Warmed up a bit in the microwave, then stirred in part A, when that was fully dissolved, I mixed in part B, topped up the solution to 1050ml and bottled it. I had forgotten how relatively little part A there is compared with B!

With the added 50ml means that technically I’m using it 1+3.2 by my math. Today I developed 3 rolls of FP4 – 20 mins at 21°C, Ilford agitation, and wash. The negs look fine – too early to say whether there is any improvement on my regular Ilfosol. I also processed another clip of my test roll (below) so I’ll get that scanned and make comparisons. I think I notice a little more in the highlights – at 1+3 it should start acting as a compensating developer, I should also have had a little acutance. I’ll have to do a few decent scans to check that out.

Reading the “Health Hazards” is a little hair raising, making it should like some sort of toxic nightmare, but one has to remember that in use the “nasties” are both in solution and diluted, and by the time disposed of, much further diluted. That said the purpose of these trials is to find and settle on one developer permanently. I would like that to be as environmentally friendly as it can be!