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Old 13th February 2009, 08:30 PM
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Rob Archer Rob Archer is offline
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Default Stoeckler's 2-Bath Film Developer

Probably the simplest 2-bath developer to make and use. - incredibly cheap, too!

Bath A

Metol: 5 g

Sodium Sulphite: 100g

Water to 1 Litre

Bath B

Borax: 10g

Water to 1 Litre

Mix in the order given in about 3/4 the total volume of water at about 35-40DegC. Make sure all the Metol is fully dissolved before adding the Sodium Sulphite. Make up the total volume with cold water.

To use pour Part A into the tank and agitate continuously for 4 - 5 minutes. Drain the tank thoroughly and immediately (do not rinse or use stop bath)pour in Part B, but DO NOT AGITATE. After 4-5 mins in part B pour out, stop (or rinse) fix and wash as normal.

This works because the developing agent (Metol) is absorbed into the emulsion during the first bath, where little development takes place. Part B is an accellerator, which immediately works rapidly in the highlight areas, where because there is no agitation the developer is exhausted rapidly, preventing the highlights blocking up. The shadow areas continue to build slowly until all the absorbed developer is exhausted, giving a very printable negative with excelent highlight and shadow detail and well-separated mid-tones.

Temperature is not critical but this works best at 20degC .

A few other useful tips:
  • Don't try to develop several films together in large tank. The lack of agitation in part B will lead to streaking ('Bromide Drag').
  • Increasing development time or temperature will give denser negatives but will have little effect on contrast
  • Stoeckler's works extremely well with slow films. Faster films will need longer times in both baths - you may need to experiment a bit to find your ideal times.
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