I made up some new D23 developer last week. All formulars are for 1 litre and to calculate less is a pain and not worth the effort. 750ml is used, then 250ml of the old stock is added to make up to the litre, this is so that all the “goodies” that have built from developing previous films, like bromide for example, make for a pre-seasoned developer from the off. This leaves 250ml. I also made up 500ml or replenisher and considered using that as a base so as not to waste it. The brainpower to work out how and the amounts to add, were not worth the effort either! Then I discovered that Ilford’s Perceptol developer is essentially the same as D23 with Sodium Chloride (salt) added. So to the spare 250ml I added 1.25 tsps of Sodium Chloride, I have some 99.9% pure, rather than table salt, and behold I had some Perceptol. I decided to go with 1+2 20 mins at 20 degrees, it worked well. I think it’s a bit sharper than D23, perhaps a little flatter, but for regular use the 20 minute dev time is too long for me – it stretches my patience!
The film was Ilford FP4+, which as always delivers for me. I used my Canon EOS 30, with the 40mm STM lens, also a tried and tested combo for me.
S.H.O.U.T. 