Forum: Photography


Subject: advice on b&w developer/stopbath, and fixer

Slynky opened this issue on Feb 12, 2003 ยท 16 posts


Wolfsnap posted Thu, 13 February 2003 at 1:15 AM

Haven't done it for a few years, but when I did, I used HC-110 developer for the film (good because it come in a high-concentrate liquid form - stores well for long periods of time, can mix just what you need, and it mixes easily because it's a liquid) Kodak Indicator stop bath for the, (you guessed it), stop bath. (the stop bath can be omitted entirely, but you have to run the film through several washes before going into the fixer). For the fixer, I always used Kodak rapid Fix - for a couple of reasons. 1 - it's a liquid and is easy to mix, and 2 - it gives you the option of leaving out the hardener (which, if you plan to do any toning of prints, needs to be left out - otherwise you get splotchy tone results). For the print developer, I've always used Kodak Dektol. There are probably newer chemicals on the market by now - but this may be a good starting point. As for the silver content in the Fix - if you can get ahold of some zinc powder, a pinch of that in exhausted fix will precipitate a silver-sludge. (not suggesting anyone actually do this to try to recover silver - but it's an interesting experiment)