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  #21  
Old 20th January 2017, 08:15 PM
Svend Svend is offline
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Got it! Thanks - makes sense.... a bit of a buffer or elbow room, in other words.

From the Ilford tech doc, it seems the easiest way to use replenisher for small amounts like this is to add it to the empty stock bottle while the soup is in the tank with the film -- adding 9 ml replenisher for every 120 or 135/36 film developed -- then after development is finished, pouring the developer from the tank back into the bottle until full, discarding the (used) surplus from the tank. Nothing to it!

Thanks for all your help Ian. This has been most enlightening and educational. I learned things today I have not seen in any of my books or online. Greatly appreciated!

Kindest regards,
Svend
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  #22  
Old 22nd January 2017, 09:42 AM
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Microphen is a very good and very underrated film developer. It's good to read people taking an interest in trying it.
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  #23  
Old 23rd January 2017, 02:27 AM
Svend Svend is offline
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Keith, that's been my impression since undertaking some review of this developer. It doesn't seem to get a lot of attention and buzz. Everyone talks about its speed boost properties, but rarely mention its pictoral qualities. Personally I'm interested in the latter, and the speed boost is just a nice bonus.

Some say it's the powder equivalent of DDX, which certainly has a lot of its own followers, but that may be just heresay. If true, and if equal to DDX, then it should be very good indeed.

If I may ask, what is it that you like about it? Any personal insight or impressions?

Thanks - appreciate any feedback you can add here.

Svend

Last edited by Svend; 23rd January 2017 at 02:33 AM.
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  #24  
Old 18th May 2017, 06:21 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SvendN View Post
Got it! Thanks - makes sense.... a bit of a buffer or elbow room, in other words.

From the Ilford tech doc, it seems the easiest way to use replenisher for small amounts like this is to add it to the empty stock bottle while the soup is in the tank with the film -- adding 9 ml replenisher for every 120 or 135/36 film developed -- then after development is finished, pouring the developer from the tank back into the bottle until full, discarding the (used) surplus from the tank. Nothing to it!

Thanks for all your help Ian. This has been most enlightening and educational. I learned things today I have not seen in any of my books or online. Greatly appreciated!

Kindest regards,
Svend
Hello Svend. did you experiment with replenishing Microphen, what are your thoughts/findings?
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  #25  
Old 18th May 2017, 07:22 PM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is offline
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Norm, replenished Microphen/ID-68 works very well. I used it regularly from about 1970 until Ilford released XP1 mostly for push processing HP5, it wasn't my main developer.

It's not as fine grained as ID-11, but that's more because the grain just appears to be sharper.

I push processed some HP-5 in Pyrocat HD last Autumn and was amazed at the results. I hadn't planned to push process but the light levels were dropping very fast and what should have been 1/100 @ f16 400EI ended up being 1/25 @ f5.5 at between 1600 - 3200 EI. As it was a moving subject I couldn't use a slower speed and f5.5 is the fastest aperture on my 360mm telephoto lens.

Ian
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  #26  
Old 18th May 2017, 07:27 PM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is offline
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Should have added that HP5 stains wonderfully in Pyrocat and the more you push the greater the stain to silver ratio which has the effect of masking the grain to some extent.

Ian
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  #27  
Old 18th May 2017, 08:18 PM
Svend Svend is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GoodOldNorm View Post
Hello Svend. did you experiment with replenishing Microphen, what are your thoughts/findings?
Hi Norm,
Sorry, no progress there yet, but it's next on my list to try. I've not been shooting much, to be honest (very busy with work and general family craziness), and what little I've been doing has been experimenting with Rodinal with FP4, HP5 and PanF. I am not really that impressed with those results, actually, but am not ready to give up on Rodinal just yet. I have a few more trials to run with stronger dilution and also different films, esp. with TMX and TMY, before I quit it entirely. But that's another topic...

This coming summer I will have Round 2 of the urban Detroit project (a personal project I'm doing with my Father-in-law, who lives in the area), and I anticipate many rolls will be burned through for that one, including some night photography(!). Microphen replenished is my intended developer. Which reminds me, if I'm going to use it for that, I'd better get cracking on some test rolls, Stat! I've been cooped up in the office for weeks now, and need to get out on some long photo hikes in the worst way. What better reason than to test a new developer So I may have an answer for you sooner than later.

Cheers,
Svend

PS -- Ian, interesting comment about ID-11 and HP5. I found the grain to be quite prominent, but very sharp, of that film in homebrew D76 at 1+1 (looks fantastic, actually....great tones and very sharp). I assume you're talking about full strength ID-11, however (maybe replenished?) and therefore more solvent action? It will be interesting to compare my past HP5 films with replenished Microphen....now I'm even more curious.

Last edited by Svend; 18th May 2017 at 08:26 PM.
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  #28  
Old 18th May 2017, 11:15 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SvendN View Post
PS -- Ian, interesting comment about ID-11 and HP5. I found the grain to be quite prominent, but very sharp, of that film in homebrew D76 at 1+1 (looks fantastic, actually....great tones and very sharp). I assume you're talking about full strength ID-11, however (maybe replenished?) and therefore more solvent action? It will be interesting to compare my past HP5 films with replenished Microphen....now I'm even more curious.
I should clarify that statement.... In relation to my usual developer for HP5 and FP4, Perceptol, the grain with D76 at 1+1 was much more noticeable. Not coarse by any means, but it's there. Very sharp grain, as noted. Perceptol, OTOH, leaves a much softer grain with HP5, even at 1+1 dilution. I really like the way HP5 comes out in D76.
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  #29  
Old 19th May 2017, 06:58 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lostlabours View Post
Should have added that HP5 stains wonderfully in Pyrocat and the more you push the greater the stain to silver ratio which has the effect of masking the grain to some extent.

Ian
Hello Ian,did you increase your development time significantly or did you use a more concentrated developer?
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  #30  
Old 19th May 2017, 07:03 AM
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I've been cooped up in the office for weeks now.....

Sven, life's too short, pack your rucksack and get out there
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