[pure-silver] Re: Chemical Blues
----- Original Message ----- From: Adrienne Moumin 
To: Pure Silver
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 6:58 AM
Subject: [pure-silver] Chemical Blues
I am wondering how to solve this issue, and would greatly appreciate any suggestions:
My soup of choice is Sodium Sulfite + Edwal FG-7. Since Big Yellow recently stopped making the SS (I could always depend on my local chain to have ONE on hand for me), I recently ponied up the cash for a 20-lb drum from Artcraft.
I had some FG-7 left from a previous film run, and all was well w/the first few runs till I ran out & went to buy more...
Twice I had to return the FG-7 to the store (which also carries just ONE of this) because it was a dark reddish brown color. It's supposed to be tan to lavender. So I special ordered three from them, making sure it was from a different lot vis-a-vis their internal warehouse code #'s. Again, it is the dark color, so I have to return it.
Obviously I need to give up on my local supplier, a friendly place where everyone knows me so it will be no problem returning this for the third time.
I am fearful of mail-ordering from B&H or someone else lest this also happen again, and it will be a bigger hassle returning it w/the shipping costs, and an even longer period of frustration when I just want to process stuff I have have sitting around from back in Oct. for a long-term project. Artcraft doesn't carry this product.
To add to my frustration, I googled "FG7", and every single site, from adorama to calumet to digital truth, apug, freestyle and amazon, is tagged in the search results with "this site may harm your computer".
If anyone has any suggestions, info, or sources, I would greatly appreciate it if you would let me know. 

Thanks in advance,
Adrienne Moumin
Sodium sulfite is used for a number of non-photographic purposes. For instance, it is very commonly used to protect packaged foods from oxidation. Check with places that sell home canning stuff. Sodium carbonate is sold as Arm and Hammer Washing Soda. This is pure enough for photographic purposes. Borax is sold as 20 Mule Team Borax, again pure enough for photographic purposes. Sodium hydroxide is sold as Red Devil Lye, same as above for purity. Kodalk, AKA sodium metaborate, decahydrate (but called octahydrate in old books), is made from Borax and sodium hydroxide by adding them in solution, see Ryuji Suzuki's site for a discussion on the name (hydration) and formula. Or I'll post it later, can't find it right now. As far as developers I don't know what it is about FG-7 that you like but I'll bet that some easier to obtain developers will do as well or better. Many of them have known formulas and do not use exotic and hard to find chemicals. Suggestions are:
Very reliable standard developer: D-76 (Ilford ID-11 is the same as far as the published formula goes but packaged D-76 is buffered and I don't think packaged ID-11 is). D-76 gives close to optimum performance with many films. D-76 works well at 1:1 dilution where longer developing times are desired. It is a one-shot at this dilution.
Probably xtol is the optimum developer for many films, i.e., has the best combination of yielding maximum film speed, finest grain, best sharpness, good tone rendition. It garnered a reputation for being unreliable but I think that had to do mostly with the packaging, which Kodak has changed. The formula for Xtol can be gotten from the two patents on it so is pretty well known. For maximum speed a developer like Ilford Microphen or DDX, or Kodak T-Max or T-Max RS is best but has slightly coarser grain than the above developers. Xtol will match them for speed except for extreme pushing. For finest grain Microdol-X or Ilford Perceptol either used full strength. These two appear to be identical. There is about a 3/4 stop loss in speed when these developers are used full strength. When diluted the speed becomes about the same as D-76 but so does the grain. Kodak published formula D-25 gives similar results but is not the same and uses a different mechanism to obtain the extra-fine-grain. D-25 may produce dichroic fog on some materials which work fine in the two commercial developers. Exagerated edge (acutance) effects can be had with several developers when diluted. For instance, either D-76 or Microdol-X (or Perceptol), when diluted 1:3 will give strong edge contrast enhancement. Kodak and Ilford give times for this dilution. Kodak does not give times for D-76 1:3 but Ilford does for ID-11 and they can be used for either developer.
For paper Dektol is about as good as anything although Phenidone formulas like Ilford Bromophen will deliver somewhat cooler image color and probably have slightly higher capacity. Many print developer formulas are available. Rodinal is not the optimum developer for anything but is very convenient and is a good print developer when diluted 1:25 (but expensive). Other highly concentrated developers, specifically HC-110 and Ilford's equivalent can deliver very good results but generally are inferior to the less concentrated ones. HC-110 is an extremely cleverly designed developer with very long concentrate life, good performance and good results with nearly any film. Ansel Adams recommended it because it makes contrast control easy by adjusting dilution. However, it does have some effect on the characteristic curve, mainly in producing something of a shoulder on some films.
I usually get my supplies from Freestyle. Of course, their main store is only about five miles from here, very convenient for me, but they have an excellent reputation for customer service and reliability. 

--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx



=============================================================================================================
To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your 
account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you subscribed,) 
and unsubscribe from there.

Other related posts: