[pure-silver] Re: HC-110 vs D-76

  • From: "Richard Knoppow" <dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 19:22:43 -0700


----- Original Message ----- From: "Bogdan Karasek" <bkarasek@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2006 5:46 PM
Subject: [pure-silver] HC-110 vs D-76


Hi,

I just got back from the photo store and they were out of D-76 on the shelf. While somebody was getting more from the storeroom, I asked if I could replace D-76 with HC-110. On more than one occasion, I have heard say, that the only difference between the two was that one was liquid and thus easier to mix as opposed to D-76 where you have to heat the water to 120°F and so forth. Tonight, I was told that they are similar but that HC-110 gives a higher contrast but that If I played around with the dilution, it could probably give comparable results to D-76. This is contrary to everything that I have heard up till now.

So what is the difference between the two? By the way, I use D-76 to develop Tri-X (200 asa) for 10.5 minutes, 68°F.

Cheers,
Bogdan

D-76 and HC-110 are both usable on most films but do not give identical results. For some idea of the difference compare the curves. Kodak shows curves for both for some films. In general, D-76 produces longer, straighter, characteristics. HC-110 will shoulder off sooner. D-76 will give slightly finer grain and slightly more film speed. The main advantage of HC-110 is that it is very convenient and can be adopted to many films by amount of dilution.
HC-110 is _not_ either higher or lower in contrast than D-76, both are relatively low contrast developers. The contrast of the negative depends on development time. Except for special purpose developers, like D-19 or lithographic developers, or special very low contrast developers like POTA or Technidol, all developers can give about the same contrast if the development time is adjusted.
D-76 is probably closer than HC-110 to an optimum developer for most films, but, again, HC-110 has the virtue of long shelf life and convenience.

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

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