I've made my own developer a couple of times, mostly D-25. I get very fine grain, but very soft results.

What if I go with the D-76 recipie and have more metol at expence of hydroquinon? 2 grams more metol and 2 grams less hydroquinon for one liter of developer.

Will that give me finer grain and still normal contrast?

Thanks for any input.

-- T. Heimlich (tmxtmy@hotmail.com), June 27, 2000

Answers

FWIW D-76H is 2.5g metol and no hydroquinone; results are about the same as ordinary D-76.

-- John Hicks (jbh@magicnet.net), June 27, 2000.

Typically fine grain is accomplished by more solvent action. This typically means more sodium sulfite. In fact D-76 undiluted is a solvent developer. Diluted, the sodium sulfite concentration is less, so it more a high acutance developer.

Pick up a copy of "The Film Developing Cookbook" by Steve Anchell. It will teach you all of this, as well as giving you a lot of formulas to try.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), June 28, 2000.

The original D-76:

Metol 2g Sodiumsulfite 100 g Hydroquinon 5 g Borax 2 g

And this is a suggestion for a fine grain version:

Metol 4 g Sodiumsulfite 200 g Hydroquinon 3 g Borax 2g

It will work soft and give a very fine grain without losing more than a 1/3 - 1/2 stop ;-)

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), June 28, 2000.

Forgot to say that my formula should be used 1+1 for the best results. Fine grain and good sharpness. I call it "JPD-76"

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), June 28, 2000.

I seem to remember that the original D-76 was formulated to give the optimum Metol/Hydroquinone ratio for maximum superadditivity effect. This means that it has the highest activity for the least amount of developing agent, and therefore gives the fullest film speed compatible with fine grain. Altering the ratio may well give finer grain, but you'll almost certainly pay for it in terms of film speed, gradation and development time.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), June 29, 2000.

Consider the D-76 split version. I'm very satisfied with the grain I get from HP5+. With almost no agaition in the second bath, contrast is limited, as dmax is just around 2.0. Zone 0 is just visible at 400 ASA rating.

Regards,

Wolfram

-- Wolfram Kollig (kollig@ipfdd.de), July 03, 2000.