Spencer, I have been developing film for 20 years and have tried a number of developers. I used Perceptol for the first time a year ago and think it is one of the finest developers on the market. Hope your tests work. I'll look forward to the video. Charlie
As always very interesting stuff! Many photographers that I know don’t really care about the exact temperature preparing the developer. Some of them put the part B into the diluted A and let it stand over night. What I do with the Xtol for example is to make a concentrated developer : 2.5 liters instead of 5 liters recommended by Kodak. It alows to use less bottles and the concentrate is long-lasting. In the meantime I also prefer PET bottles instead of glass bottles which I used previously after one of them was broken on the floor full of developer. Take care..
Hi Spencer. Almost forgoten... If you safely want to store you stock solution of already mixed Perceptol (or any other developer) there is this ! Tetenal, a verry well known German brand of chemicals and photographic papers manufactures a spray called "Protectan" it is a protective gas in a spraybottle. It puts a gas fume lid over your developer and prevents oxidizing, it costs here (Netherlands) around euro 20,00 Just want to mention this :-) Greetings, Bert Cremers.
Spencer - Just a thought to write down in the more section of your next video the settings used for ISO 64, 1:1 Mixture, Minutes... as discussed here for easy reference.
One issue I did not see you address is whether the actual amount of stock developer being used in the final event is sufficient to fully develop your film. You are processing one 8x10 inch sheet, 80 square inches, which is the Unit used for these comparisons. This is about equal to one 36 exp 35mm roll. You plan to use 62 ml if stock with 62ml of water for 125 ml of working solution to develop that sheet. I looked at Ilford's information and found no information about minimum stock solutions required. Note that we are not talking about whether 125 ml of working solution will adequately cover the film in a rotary Jobo, but whether that 125 ml will have enough chemical in it to do the full job. Also, the time reduction for rotary development is 15%, which from a 13 minute basis would be 11 minutes, not 9 minutes - that a pretty big difference. I'm sure you will have no problem sorting out a workable program.
Thanks for watching! Just to explain some of this. On the timing you are correct. I usually reduce 20% right off the top, this is how I got 9 minutes instead of 11. Also, there has been some debate on how much developer to use so it won't run out of steam in the middle of developing. I have discussed this with my other large format photo friends and we all agree for the cibachrome, we should be using a total of 250ml, not 125ml. Just as a side note, I'm in the middle of testing my film with the Behind The Zone System with Fred Newman, so many of the these variables will be fixed with calibrated film testing. I'll be doing a video on this when it's all complete. Thanks!
Maybe I missed something in a past video, but your are doing Cibachrme??? When I first taught myself color printing in the 1980's, I learned on Cibachrome using contrast masking and a DIY low contrast substitute developer. Sort of learning to swim by jumping in the deep end an stroking toward the shallow. I still have some terrific prints from that era of my photography. I moved on (back?) to color negative printing after gassing myself by carelessly opening a processed drum once too often. I assume you have a fairly old stock of paper and chems you are working through.
I'm using a Cibachrome drum for processing. If you would like to see my set up, here is a video: ua-cam.com/video/f0aeTu2iYyc/v-deo.html And here is a video developing a piece of film from start to finish: ua-cam.com/video/rww0XZz_zV8/v-deo.html The Cibachrome works great for developing 8x10 film! Thanks...
I've always used Cibachrome drums because of their clean design and ease to disassemble and dry. The friction-fit caps stay water tight without special seals, but sometimes have to be pried off.
Hi Spencer, I have a question about the loss of 1 stop with Perceptol. If you are shooting Delta 100 should you compensate while shooting by measuring for ISO 50 and also compensate later by using developing times relative to ISO 50? That got me confused. Does it mean that if I'm using Perceptol as a developer, I should never shoot Delta100 at 100 ISO? What if I want to push it to 200? Sorry if this makes no sense, and thank you for your attention.
Alexandre Cabrita Thanks for watching! I was instructed to shoot at ISO 50 and develop at 100ISO. Since I have done this video, I’ve gone back to D76, I think it’s sharper and has worked well for me. Thanks!
You can have sharpness with low visible grain by using a staining developer, such as any of the Pyro formulas and Moersch Tanol. The developer stain masks the grain.
That problem with Pyrocat doesn't sound right. Curious to know if know if you called/written Photograhers Formulary and ask them about it. I'm just switching over to Pyrocat from PMK (which I've used for 20 years. IMO you won't find a better developer than pyro. You might want to check out Steve Sherman's website "Power of Process".
After I have talked with a few folks, I think the big bottles have gone bad. I didn't have an issue with the smaller bottles. When I reorder new stock, I'll get the smaller set. Thanks for watching!
Hi there Spencer. This mail is maby to late but I have to ask you this... Since you are trying to compare two developers, is it not a good idea to take two identical pictures on FP4 plus and develop one sheet with your regular developer (pyro or DDX) and the other sheet with your newly Perceptol ? This way you can get a real A and B comparison with the same film on different developers. At least this is my way of working. Furthermore, and now we are getting to the end result, I would print both negatives to see how it looks on paper, this is the end product. Both negatives may look good but this gives a true impression of tonality, grain and sharpnes. By the way, when Tmax came out, Kodak told us to develop 1+4 @24 degrees Celcius, this gave harsh and way to contrasy negatives with dangerous times, you will agree. We use an alternative way and exposed Tmax 100 @ ISO 64, developed it in Tmax developer 1+9 @ 20 degrees Celcius for 9 minuters, grain is almost gone, tonality is great, contrast is softer and you get safer developing times. Try it, you wil be amazed ! Greetings, Bert Cremers.
Never too late! Thanks for watching and commenting! I agree, I should shoot two negs and try in the other developer as well. Since I’m basically starting from scratch I figure this is going to take some tweaking to nail down. Thanks for the advice!
Nice detailed video. Would you give Adox CMS 20 and Rollei Ortho 25 a go? Both of them are very sharp/fine grain films, maybe like the old Kodak Technical Pan. And both required some special developers. I do not shot large format. So I am not quite sure about your needs. Spur Acurol-N is also a recommended developer. Please check: spur-photo.com/some-information-in-english/ and macodirect.de
Spencer, I have been developing film for 20 years and have tried a number of developers. I used Perceptol for the first time a year ago and think it is one of the finest developers on the market. Hope your tests work. I'll look forward to the video. Charlie
Thanks for watching and the encouraging words. I’m looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Thanks!
Very instructive thanks a lot! Happy New Year from Paris 😊!
Thanks! And happy New Year to you as well!
As always very interesting stuff! Many photographers that I know don’t really care about the exact temperature preparing the developer. Some of them put the part B into the diluted A and let it stand over night. What I do with the Xtol for example is to make a concentrated developer : 2.5 liters instead of 5 liters recommended by Kodak. It alows to use less bottles and the concentrate is long-lasting. In the meantime I also prefer PET bottles instead of glass bottles which I used previously after one of them was broken on the floor full of developer. Take care..
Jakob Olszewski Great advice! I’ll try that next time. As always, thanks for watching!
Hi Spencer.
Almost forgoten...
If you safely want to store you stock solution of already mixed Perceptol (or any other developer) there is this !
Tetenal, a verry well known German brand of chemicals and photographic papers manufactures a spray called "Protectan" it is a protective gas in a spraybottle.
It puts a gas fume lid over your developer and prevents oxidizing, it costs here (Netherlands) around euro 20,00
Just want to mention this :-)
Greetings,
Bert Cremers.
Great tip! I’ll get some. Thanks!
Never seen such a detailed " Howto " video before ! Thank you for sharing and putting all the work in Spencer ! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
You are too kind. Hope it helps along the way. Thanks for watching!
Pleasure watching, as always !
Well done and easy for us to follow along. Look forward to your next video developing with Perceptol.
Thanks for watching! Will be interesting to see how this goes.
Spencer - Just a thought to write down in the more section of your next video the settings used for ISO 64, 1:1 Mixture, Minutes... as discussed here for easy reference.
Great suggestion. I’ll do that in the next episode. Thanks!
One issue I did not see you address is whether the actual amount of stock developer being used in the final event is sufficient to fully develop your film. You are processing one 8x10 inch sheet, 80 square inches, which is the Unit used for these comparisons. This is about equal to one 36 exp 35mm roll. You plan to use 62 ml if stock with 62ml of water for 125 ml of working solution to develop that sheet. I looked at Ilford's information and found no information about minimum stock solutions required. Note that we are not talking about whether 125 ml of working solution will adequately cover the film in a rotary Jobo, but whether that 125 ml will have enough chemical in it to do the full job. Also, the time reduction for rotary development is 15%, which from a 13 minute basis would be 11 minutes, not 9 minutes - that a pretty big difference. I'm sure you will have no problem sorting out a workable program.
Thanks for watching! Just to explain some of this. On the timing you are correct. I usually reduce 20% right off the top, this is how I got 9 minutes instead of 11. Also, there has been some debate on how much developer to use so it won't run out of steam in the middle of developing. I have discussed this with my other large format photo friends and we all agree for the cibachrome, we should be using a total of 250ml, not 125ml.
Just as a side note, I'm in the middle of testing my film with the Behind The Zone System with Fred Newman, so many of the these variables will be fixed with calibrated film testing. I'll be doing a video on this when it's all complete. Thanks!
Maybe I missed something in a past video, but your are doing Cibachrme??? When I first taught myself color printing in the 1980's, I learned on Cibachrome using contrast masking and a DIY low contrast substitute developer. Sort of learning to swim by jumping in the deep end an stroking toward the shallow. I still have some terrific prints from that era of my photography. I moved on (back?) to color negative printing after gassing myself by carelessly opening a processed drum once too often. I assume you have a fairly old stock of paper and chems you are working through.
I'm using a Cibachrome drum for processing. If you would like to see my set up, here is a video: ua-cam.com/video/f0aeTu2iYyc/v-deo.html And here is a video developing a piece of film from start to finish: ua-cam.com/video/rww0XZz_zV8/v-deo.html The Cibachrome works great for developing 8x10 film! Thanks...
I've always used Cibachrome drums because of their clean design and ease to disassemble and dry. The friction-fit caps stay water tight without special seals, but sometimes have to be pried off.
Hi Spencer,
I have a question about the loss of 1 stop with Perceptol. If you are shooting Delta 100 should you compensate while shooting by measuring for ISO 50 and also compensate later by using developing times relative to ISO 50? That got me confused. Does it mean that if I'm using Perceptol as a developer, I should never shoot Delta100 at 100 ISO? What if I want to push it to 200? Sorry if this makes no sense, and thank you for your attention.
Alexandre Cabrita Thanks for watching! I was instructed to shoot at ISO 50 and develop at 100ISO. Since I have done this video, I’ve gone back to D76, I think it’s sharper and has worked well for me. Thanks!
You can have sharpness with low visible grain by using a staining developer, such as any of the Pyro formulas and Moersch Tanol. The developer stain masks the grain.
This is great! thanks.
Great thanks , all the best,
Roy Burton Thanks for watching!
That problem with Pyrocat doesn't sound right. Curious to know if know if you called/written Photograhers Formulary and ask them about it. I'm just switching over to Pyrocat from PMK (which I've used for 20 years. IMO you won't find a better developer than pyro. You might want to check out Steve Sherman's website "Power of Process".
After I have talked with a few folks, I think the big bottles have gone bad. I didn't have an issue with the smaller bottles. When I reorder new stock, I'll get the smaller set. Thanks for watching!
Why do you make a video before you have read info and tested the product?
Hi there Spencer.
This mail is maby to late but I have to ask you this...
Since you are trying to compare two developers, is it not a good idea to take two identical pictures on FP4 plus and develop one sheet with your regular developer (pyro or DDX) and the other sheet with your newly Perceptol ?
This way you can get a real A and B comparison with the same film on different developers.
At least this is my way of working.
Furthermore, and now we are getting to the end result, I would print both negatives to see how it looks on paper, this is the end product.
Both negatives may look good but this gives a true impression of tonality, grain and sharpnes.
By the way, when Tmax came out, Kodak told us to develop 1+4 @24 degrees Celcius, this gave harsh and way to contrasy negatives with dangerous times, you will agree.
We use an alternative way and exposed Tmax 100 @ ISO 64, developed it in Tmax developer 1+9 @ 20 degrees Celcius for 9 minuters, grain is almost gone, tonality is great, contrast is softer and you get safer developing times.
Try it, you wil be amazed !
Greetings,
Bert Cremers.
Never too late! Thanks for watching and commenting! I agree, I should shoot two negs and try in the other developer as well. Since I’m basically starting from scratch I figure this is going to take some tweaking to nail down. Thanks for the advice!
Cut the box open! Ilford prints the directions on the inside of the box.
You are correct! There is lots of info in there. Thanks for watching!
Nice detailed video.
Would you give Adox CMS 20 and Rollei Ortho 25 a go? Both of them are very sharp/fine grain films, maybe like the old Kodak Technical Pan. And both required some special developers.
I do not shot large format. So I am not quite sure about your needs.
Spur Acurol-N is also a recommended developer.
Please check: spur-photo.com/some-information-in-english/ and macodirect.de
I’ll check those out! Thanks for watching!
Hi
It's doubled in price in 5 years.