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Old 21st December 2018, 05:15 PM
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pentaxpete pentaxpete is offline
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Default Crawley's FX-4 variations

I mixed up some Geoffrey Crawley's 'FX-4' Formula supposed to be very good for Kodak films as i wanted to see any difference with IDII 1+1 and DK50 1+1 fog level and contrasts. I used his 'Original 1961' Formula :
METOL 1.5 Grams
PHENIDONE 0.5 Gram
HYDROQUINONE 5.0 Grams
SODIUM SULPHITE anhyd 100.0 Grams
BORAX 2.5 Grams
POTASSIUM BROMIDE 0.5 Gram
Warm filtered Water to 1 litre
Then on a Forum I saw PHENIDONE changed to 0.25 Gram and HYDROQUINONE to 6 Grams and another change to include Boric Acid!

Which is 'Correct' ?? My initial test with outdated Kodak Tri-X rated 400 ASA ( as it supposed to increase Film Speed by 60%) was under-developed and slightly under-exposed negs. i DID rate the old Tri-X with the other developers at 250 ASA so have changed camera back now to 250 ASA and will give longer time next test. 'Fog Level 'seems to be the same with all three Developers I tried.
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Old 22nd December 2018, 10:08 AM
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Crawley's original BJP articles from 1961 give the formula you've listed.

It's changed by 1972 however these could be typos made by the printers/type setters which weren't spotted.

Few people made up Crawleys developers other than the Acutance ones, there are no benefits from using Metol and Phenidone together with Hydroquinone. The only time 3 developing agents is beneficial was in long lasting commercial deep tank developers, both Kodak and Ilfor added Pyrogallol to an MQ developer where it acted as an Oxygen scavenger.

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Old 30th December 2018, 01:55 PM
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More 'Test Results' !! I now gave 13 mins @20oC to the Old Tri-X instead of 11,5 mins and got much denser negs -- I could have rated film at 400 ASA for 'dull light' easily ! one with a bit of 'Sunlight' was a bit Contrasty but all other were fine and printed on my Old Jessops VC Glossy well with 120 to 130 magenta in my 35mm Durst M305 enlarger. The 1961 FX-4 seems to give the 60% speed BUT diluted it needs much longer time than I tried. 'Fog Level' seemed to be un-changed. I will put some results into the 'Gallery'
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