Last Thursday I developed a film with the last of my FX55. A home made Vitamin-C developer formulated by Geoffrey Crawley. I was introduced to it, and shown how to make it by John Finch over at Pictorial Planet. I’ve found it to be a great developer, fine grain, good contrast, easy to use, and it keeps for at least six months. The batch I just finished was made up last October. The part B, (if you opt for the liquid version) goes very dark, and I mean very dark, but still seems fine! I’ve made another batch.
I also like D23, especially with HP5, so I made up a fresh litre of that too. The other thing that I like about D23 is that it’s re-used. There is a replenisher for it – DK25-R, couldn’t be simpler – mark the bottle with the level, pour the developer into the tank and develop. While you are waiting for your next agitation, add 22ml of the replensisher into bottle. When development is finished, pour the used developer back into the bottle too, up to the mark, dump the rest! That’s usually just a few ml! I therefore always have a litre of dev ready to go. As a developer it’s quite high in Sodium Sulphite, and therefore keeps well. I mix 500ml of the replenisher, which, with a little bit of maths allows enough for about 22 rolls. After that I’ll mix another fresh litre and start again. A good tip though, is to add about 250ml of the old developer to 750ml of the fresh. All the goodies that have built up in the mix, the bromides out of the film etc, will “season” the developer, and make it better!
That does leave 250ml of “neat” D23, but that’s another post!! 🙂
S.H.O.U.T. 