I have been using PMK and VC paper for a good 2 years now for a lot of my photo work but was looking through some early experiments and some things puzzled me now that I am begining to see how this combo works. Was wondering if anyone else has done any research on some things that I was thinking about.

When I started to play with PMK I was (and still am) using a lot of APX 100 w/ Rodinal. The APX was not a popular combo with PMK so I decided to go with PXP. Something that I knew how it responded and stained well. I have switched to D100 and/or FP4+ for my medium speed requirements with PMK but when reviewing some of my earlier negs I was wondering why PXP with a blue base does not print with a high contrast on VC paper, even in conventional developers it seems to be normal to low contrast based on visual appearance. In PMK it displays similar properties with films having a clear base. Why doesn't the blue base change the printing properties?

-- Robert W Boyer (rboyer@mindspring.com), June 25, 2001

Answers

It has been some time since I used Plus-X at all, but I don't recall any problem getting it to stain in PMK. With variable contrast papers, a blue cast to the emulsion might inhibit yellow light slightly, but unless the blue color was particularly strong my guess is it wouldn't inhibit enough to make a discernable difference.

I'd be curious to hear other workers' comments on Plus-X in PMK.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), June 27, 2001.