When developing my B & W film , I first cool my developer to 68F. Then I pour it into my tank and develope it.As I develope the film it warms up to the ambient temperature,frequently as high as 75 F. I can think fo three techniques to handle this. 1. Leave things the way that they are. I am getting good results. 2. Devise some type of tempering box to even out the temperature. 3. Work at ambient temperature and adjust the time per some chart. Has anyone else dealt with this type of situaton and how do you recommend handling it?

Please ignore the incomplete post above for the same question.

-- Howard Dvorin (HowardDvorin@cs.com), November 22, 2001

Answers

the easiest way is to get new developer times at room temperature, whatever that is for you. I lived in Houston and in the summer, water temperature was 78 F. I never saw it go lower than 70 with exception of a few days in winter. I standarized to 75 and when I needed a little bit cooler I just added one piece of ice.... much better than buying a tempering unit, or doing the temp averaging you are doing.

-- Jorge Gasteazoro (jorgegm58@prodigy.net.mx), November 22, 2001.

If you are getting good results why change? But I have found it easier to keep on hand 2 or 3 gallons of distilled water that I keep in the same cupboard as my chemistry. My darkroom temperature is a lower than yours, between 70 and 72, but I just check temperature of the dilluted developer and adjust time accordingly. With a quality digital you can be within a tenthh of a degree. Results are consistent and I don't waste time trying to bring solutions up or down to a specific temp.

-- James Chinn (jchinn2@dellepro.com), November 22, 2001.

Tempering box? Why not just keep the tank in a sinkful of water at the right temperature while you're developing? It probably takes something like an hour and a half for a gallon of water at 68 to reach 75.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), November 23, 2001.

I use a stainless steel tank for my developing and between agitations I put the tank in a waterfilled sink with the water temperature I want. The water covers about 2/3 to 4/5 of the height of the tank and the change in temperature (caused by a higher room temperature) for the entire developing session is only 0.1 to 0.2 centigrades. It doesn't work as well with plastic tanks since they are less efficient in transferring heat and also becuase they tend to float. The lid of the tank is tight so between every second agitation I leave the tank standing on the lid which has helped me get very even development (I use 120-film almost exclusively).

-- Peter Olsson (peter.olsson@lulebo.se), November 23, 2001.