Topic: Weekend June 3-4

[jharr]

It's been a while since I kicked one of these off, so here goes.

We took a drive up to Mt Laguna in search of some sun since San Diego has had the least amount of sunshine of any city in the US for the month of May. I took the Bronica S2a and a roll of Tri-x 400. I developed it in homemade 510Pyro. I tried to fix it in my usual Ilford Rapid fix, but it didn't clear. I guess I never read that you need an alkaline fixer like TF4 with pyro developers. I didn't have any of that, so I threw some baking soda into my nearly exhausted Rapid Fix and when it stopped fizzing, I gave it a few minutes soak. I had no reason to think that this would actually work, but at this point the film was lost either way. To my delight the film came out clear! The pyro developer makes tri-x look like a lower speed film (maybe like old Acros) with nice smooth grain.

S2a-Trix-002_sm by James Harr, on Flickr


S2a-Trix-008_sm by James Harr, on Flickr

[EarlJam]

A couple of color shots from the archive, 10 years ago next week. Pentax MX and (if I remember correctly) Fuji Provia.

[Bryan]

Nice shots James, I’m glad the sodium bicarbonate helped with the fix.  I just had a long in-depth discussion with a chemist about alkalinity of sodium bicarbonate at a job site.  We were using it to neutralize oxidizers, which does work, but we still don’t know why.  We did get a fizzy reaction, so something was happening.

Here’s some trees shoot with Kodak Retina IIIC using Adox HR-50 developed in beer. 

Wayne Park Orchard by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

Tree with a Crutch by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

[Kai-san]

I really like the second shot, James. Baking soda can be used for several purposes, I've made a cleaning agent with baking soda and vinegar. But I stay well clear of pyro developers, I hear they're quite toxic.

KMZ Horizont / Rollei RPX 400 in Adox XT-3

[jharr]

But I stay well clear of pyro developers, I hear they're quite toxic.

Yes, it is the most toxic developer I have on hand and I'm not sure I have really seen a great benefit to using it. I made 50mL, so just 10 dev cycles should get me through it. I was hoping it would be a good option for some old sheet films I have like the Camera 2000 film, but it turns out to be no better than My-tol. I probably won't make any more. My chemistry degree gets me into things I should probably stay away from.

[Francois]

I believe that the only real reason for having pyro developers is that they keep forever.
But then again so does Rodinal and HC-110 when in concentrated form, so that kinds negates the need.

[Kai-san]

I have used up the last bottle of the old HC-110, but I will not buy the new version. I hear people are not very happy about it. Kodak also ruined Xtol, it is unusable after two weeks. And when you have to mix 5 litres and you end up pouring 4 litres down thew drain then that's it. I've switched to Adox XT-3 which is just as good if not better than the old Xtol, and it comes in 1 or 3 litre packs and lasts for at least 6 months. But like Xtol it doesn't agree with Rollei Retro 400S film for some reason, there I have to resort to good old Rodinal.

[Francois]

Just like Foma 400 and HC-110... they fight in the tank and all the gray areas are the first ones to lose the fight.

[astrobeck]

Late to the party...I've been arguing with an old Praktica MTL-3 that I've had for a while but don't use much because it's so cantankerous.
It's built like a tank, and operates like one too!
Pentacon 50 mm f/1.8 lens from a long ago "share the love" swap here on filmwasters.
Arista 100 swished in caffenol

[Francois]

Of course it's built like a tank, it says so on the front!
It's made from MeTaL 😉🤘

[Kai-san]

I've got an MTL 5 which I think handles quite nicely, the only drawback is that the viewfinder is slightly dark. The Zenit SLRs have a noticeably brighter viewfinder.