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> Making up 'Microphen' formula |
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#1
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Making up 'Microphen' formula
I had a go to make up some'Microphen' film developer from the formula and saw it contained 'Sodium Tripolyphospate' which I took to be the 'water softening agent' as Geoffrey Crawley told me before he died NOT to use 'Supermarket CALGON' any more as it is no longer 'Sodium Hexametaphosphate' and the new formula would upset photographic developers -- so left it out and used boiled tap water filtered to get rid of dissolved Oxygen and some 'hardness' -- then formula contains 'Sodium Metabisulphite 0.65 gm' which I could not find in my chemical store so I used 'Sodium BI-sulphite' instead . On looking in the film box from my FP4 + dated 03/2005 I was going to use as a 'test' it said for Microphen 1+1 7 mins which I thought was a 'Bit Short' and Good Job I checked on www.digitaltruth.com massive developer chart as they gave 10 mins !! Well, I took tests rating film at 125ASA and it came out GREAT !! Very little Fog Level and definition under x6 magnifier very good from my 50mm f1.4 SMC Takumar on my SP F really good.
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Computerised and Slightly DIGITISED but FILM still RULES with ME ! |
#2
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Sodium Metabisulphite can usually be found anywhere that does home brewing equipment.
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#3
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Pete, I think you are saying that the Digital Truth time of 10 mins which you used and was right. So Ilford's own time of 3 mins less would have been way too short.
That's a 33% reduction! I wonder why Ilford has got a time so different and based on your experience so wrong as well? Mike |
#4
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It's partly because Pete is making up Autophen and not Microphen.
Autophen was Ilford's PQ photo-finishing developer sold for automated large scale processing lines, essentially it's a PQ version of ID-11 but very much more robust as it's very significantly less affected by bromide build up and instead of bleed replenishment could also be used by topping up replenishment. Autophen is also know as the Axford-Kendal photofinishing developer. Microphen is an entirely different formula. Ian |
#5
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Thanks Ian. That explains it. Some Ilford times may be "wrong" but not usually 33% wrong.
Mike |
#6
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The Metabisulphite is only used in the commercial dry packaged versions of Autophen & Microphen in Part A to help prevent oxidation of the Developing agents. it's also used in Bromophen & I think Perceptol.
It's not an active ingredient in the working solution and breaks down to sulphite once the developer is mixed up. The commercial version of ID-68 is Microphen and the two as well as the Repenishers are inter0changeable. Unfortunately some US publications in the 1950's, particularly the Photo Lab Index assumed the Autophen formula published by Ilford was the same as Microphen, that was perpetuated in many other US publications which rather than use primary sources just used what was in the LAb Index which were full of errors. Ian |
#7
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Thanks all : when Ilford first brought out 'Delta 400 Pro' I used some on a PR job and used the dev time as printed in the film box ( like in the FP4+ box) and I got some very 'THIN' negatives -- well I complained to Ilford and the reply was that 'early batches of the Delta 400 were a Little Slow' and they increased the dev time next time I looked ! I went by the word 'Microphen 1+1' in the FP4+ box and it definitely said 7 mins for 1+1 !
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Computerised and Slightly DIGITISED but FILM still RULES with ME ! |
#8
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Pete it would appear that Ilford has changed its position on times compared with the film box times. I hadn't considered this. The current Microphen spec sheet also says 10 mins for 1+1 so the "discrepancy" has gone
The lesson may be that users of old film in old boxes should check against current spec sheets instead of relying on film box info. Mike |
#9
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The formula I use for microphen is the one from The Darkroom Cookbook (#21) which is described as 'microphen-type'. I use the times given for Ilford Microphen and find it works fine. My personal taste is for a slightly higher contrast negative so I usually develop for 10% above the published times. The formula:
Water 52°C. 750ml Sodium Sulphite (anh)100g Hydroquinone 5g Borax 3g Boric acid 3.5g Potassium bromide 1g Phenidone 0.2g Cold water to 1litre This is now my standard developer for faster films. |
#10
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Thanks for all you interesting replies -- I will see if I can attach links to my Microphen results-- all the details ate under the photos ---
https://flic.kr/p/zTo1ES https://flic.kr/p/zTsDoe https://flic.kr/p/AaXZwc https://flic.kr/p/ze5DKH https://flic.kr/p/A9Ngif https://flic.kr/p/zdWnQ3
__________________
Computerised and Slightly DIGITISED but FILM still RULES with ME ! |
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