Pyrocat HD

I'd also be interested in a source Ian.

The cost of shipping from the US makes buying from the Formulary prohibitive.

Mike
 
I saw that previously Ian, but was hoping someone else would try it before i jumped in ;)

£7.80 with the same for postage (plus customs?) means it's not cheap either. I placed an order with Silverprint to make my own (based on Sandy King's formula) but after placing the order, they called to tell me the Pyro was no longer available. :mad:

I may just give it a try now that my darkroom is fully up and running.

Mike
 
I am not sure if we would be charged customs. 6 - 8 weeks delivery time though which I am guessing that it must be coming in via sea rather than air.

From my quick calculations, in a Paterson tank to develop 4 sheets would take 10ml of A + B so in total you could develop 40 sheets which works out at about 40p per 4 sheets (10p per sheet)
 
Not strictly what you are looking for but similar. Have you considered Moersch Tanol? It is a 2 liquid developer that you mix 1 part A + 1 part B + 100 parts water. I have started using it for my MF work and find it gives good sharpness, a brownish stain and a reasonable film speed. It is available in the UK from Process Supplies in London. It is not cheap at £12.85 plus you may have to pay for courier delivery at about £7.95 or so.
There are also 2 other similar products, Tanol Speed and Finol, both slightly more expensive, but I have not tried those. Friends who have tried the Speed version report that it gives a green/yellow stain but that the base fog is quite high especially on HP5 Plus. If you visit the Moersch web site there are downloadable PDFs about staining developers in general and specific instructions for each developer.
 
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Not a lot that I can see from my results. I have used Pyrocat HD and Hutchings PMK and they all seem to give similar results. I suppose that with Tanol, and PMK, you can vary the time to change the contrast which does not seem to be an option with HD. Also while HD seems to state the same time for all films Tanol has a separate time for each film.
 
Bill, Do you add Part A + Water and then Part B right before you develop the film
 
Basically yes. I measure out the water, using distilled as recommended, then add Part A followed immediately by Part B give it a stir then pour it into the tank.
Thinking about your earlier mention of cost should that be a factor? If you have gone to the trouble of taking the image then getting the best negative you can should be the next step. You can make as many prints/scans as you like once you have a good negative to work with. So for me the negative is the 'precious' item.
 
Basically yes. I measure out the water, using distilled as recommended, then add Part A followed immediately by Part B give it a stir then pour it into the tank

So you mix as required, unlike XTOL where you have to make up the full 5 ltrs
 
Correct. There is really no comparison to using a powdered developer that you mix the whole quantity as a stock solution. Really the 100 ml bottles are your pre-mixed stock solutions. Think more of using a liquid developer such as Rodinal or Ilford Ilfosol.
 
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It's the same process as using other two-part developers like Barry Thornton's DiXactol.....also sadly no longer available.

Part A plus Part B plus water to volume and use immediately as a one-shot dev.
 
It's the same process as using other two-part developers like Barry Thornton's DiXactol.....also sadly no longer available.

Part A plus Part B plus water to volume and use immediately as a one-shot dev.
True. There have been a number of similar developers such as Prescysol that are no longer available.
 
Bill, compared to regular developers like XTOL, is there anything to be aware of when using
Tanol
 
No, just use it like any other developer. Agitate for the first 30 seconds then 5 seconds per 30. They also mention a pre-rinse but I have not done that. It seems to be more needed for Delta 400 which is not a sheet film emulsion but is in 120 and 35mm. The stop bath is a weaker solution at 1% rather than the normal 5%. They do recommend Alkali fixer but I have never used it. I do have some and will use it for my next film just to see what difference if any it makes. Apparently an acid fixer may reduce the amount of stain.
 
Will the amount of staining have any effect when scanning ?

I read about 1/2 strength of Stop Bath. Do you do this Bill ?
 
Sorry Ian I know nothing about scanning so cannot answer that.
I have not tried the weaker stop bath but intend to later this coming week when I process my next films.
 
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