Topic: Hc-110 and fast developing films

[mcduff]

I know there are a few hc-110 users out there (hi Francois). I use it and generally like it as an all round developer. One problem i have is the common dilution I use (B or 1:31) is not great for some films (eg pan F+) as the dev time drops below 5 min. I would rather only have one developer on the go at once.  The standard recommendation  is to use dilution H (which is B cut in half) and double the time. It seems to work. But there is one wrinkle. According to the unofficial hc-110 site there should have at least 6ml of the syrup per roll of 35mm. With Dilution H that results in a lot of developer limiting how many rolls I can process at once  as the tank gets full.   Any experience out there using Dilution H? Do I need 6ml of syrup per roll of 35?

[Mind the Mix]

I developed my first rolls in Dil H and it worked really good.

Check my Flickr stream for more examples
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mindthemix/8425034929/#in/photostream

You can read really good inputs from pros (not me) on the following forum I did post the similar question:

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum37/114515-my-first-b-w-film-development-here-we-go.html

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum37/114750-kodak-hc-110-tf-4-gentle-vigorous-agitation.html

[Francois]

I used dilution H only once on a film from a test camera (my Gevabox). I don't really know what happened but I ended up with a very flat negative. It's still printable, only you need to go bump up the grade quite a bit... something I'm not used to since Dil.B gives nice negatives that err on the contrasty side.

As for the volume, I had 7.some ml of chemistry for a roll of 120.

I too used it because the developing time was too short. But if I had to re-do it, I'd mix some Dil.B using only water from the cold tap. Since I dilute the syrup directly using a big syringe, it's easy to do.

[Rich815]

I've used HC-110 dilution H for many years, its wonderful.  And yes, follow the rule about minimum amount of developer.  I've never noticed any difference from dilution H and dilution B.  I use H most of the time for better consistently in the process, any minor changes (temp, agitation, times) are less likely to have any affect roll to roll.