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  #1  
Old 26th February 2009, 08:00 PM
John John is offline
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Default Personal Film speed with Prescysol?

Whilst Prescysol is a topic of discusion I thought I would ask about the recommendation of "We recommend for ultimate control and results that you perform standard tests to determine film speed and development times".
The question is, is the tests the same as with any other film developer combination or is there a procedure that takes into account the staining etc.
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Old 26th February 2009, 08:26 PM
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John, personally when I started using staining developers such as Prescysol, PMK pyro, etc., I test film speed and standard development time as I would using so called standard developers. I make no special allowance for the stain.
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Old 26th February 2009, 08:34 PM
Dave miller Dave miller is offline
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I agree with Trevor, just test as normal.
I must admit though that as I have been happy with the results that I have obtained with Prescysol at the recommended times, I have never tested for film speed or development times. I have however played around with dilution since this has quite an effect on contrast.
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Old 1st March 2009, 05:17 PM
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Default dilution the answer!

Many thanks to Trevor and Dave, it looks like the dilution tests is the way forward.
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Old 1st March 2009, 06:07 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave View Post
I must admit though that as I have been happy with the results that I have obtained with Prescysol at the recommended times, I have never tested for film speed or development times. I have however played around with dilution since this has quite an effect on contrast.
Would you like to elaborate further on that Dave?

I am using Prescysol EF and would be interested. I had the impression (wrongly by the look of it) that what you got is what you got.

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Old 1st March 2009, 06:48 PM
Dave miller Dave miller is offline
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Simply that increasing the dilution increases the contrast of the negatives. Whether it makes any difference to your prints, only you will be able to judge. Similarly changing the developing time, or varying the film speed used may have an effect. Peter gives his suggestions for development times, which we all seem to have accepted without testing for ourselves, because it works. Does that mean varying the time will not improve the results. Without testing I don't know.
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Old 4th March 2009, 04:10 PM
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Actually Dave, it's decreasing dilution that increases contrast! That means adding more of the A and B solutions to the water. This is the main way of changing contrast. Another is to increase agitation. Increasing time will have very little effect as the dev is self-limiting to a point. Increasing time will increase shadow detail but not affect highlights so much.
Prescysol is such a forgiving developer that the times suggested will almost always give printable negatives. If you're a sufficiently advanced photographer and like a particular 'look' in your negs you can fine tune. Les, for example, likes very contrasty negs and often mixes EF at 5:5:100. I keep telling him he's wasting developer, but you know Les...
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Old 4th March 2009, 05:03 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Hogan View Post
Actually Dave, it's decreasing dilution that increases contrast! That means adding more of the A and B solutions to the water. This is the main way of changing contrast. Another is to increase agitation. Increasing time will have very little effect as the dev is self-limiting to a point. Increasing time will increase shadow detail but not affect highlights so much.
Prescysol is such a forgiving developer that the times suggested will almost always give printable negatives. If you're a sufficiently advanced photographer and like a particular 'look' in your negs you can fine tune. Les, for example, likes very contrasty negs and often mixes EF at 5:5:100. I keep telling him he's wasting developer, but you know Les...
You are, as ever, quite right; but I knew what I meant. I put more stuff in the water is what I do!

I agree that increased agitation can increase contrast, but this isn't peculiar to Prescysol.
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Old 4th March 2009, 04:46 PM
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My regular developer is D-76 diluted 1:1, but quite recently I had a film developed in Pyrocat HD by one of our forum members, so I am considering Prescysol EF due to it`s availability as a liquid concentrate and for economy. I will use it as recommended to start with though. I am hoping that the negatives will print well on graded papers such as Ilfospeed, Galerie, Kenthene, Bromide and Kentona.
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Old 4th March 2009, 04:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ag-Bromide View Post
My regular developer is D-76 diluted 1:1, but quite recently I had a film developed in Pyrocat HD by one of our forum members, so I am considering Prescysol EF due to it`s availability as a liquid concentrate and for economy. I will use it as recommended to start with though. I am hoping that the negatives will print well on graded papers such as Ilfospeed, Galerie, Kenthene, Bromide and Kentona.
I print on graded papers without any problem, although on none of those you list.
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