Best chemistry

[carlosrpvertsz]

Hello everybody,

What is the longest life film developer(after mixed of course) chemistry available in the market?

Sincerely,
Carlos

 

[maxon]

Developers in sealed containers now seriously there's not much you can do to extend dev life, it's going to degrade once loaded in a film processor. Always use the correct developer for the film type. Sometimes other brands may work but it's open to experiment. Production permitting you have a minimum of leverage by grouping production in batches - process several jobs at a time then shut down the machine to keep the developer at room temp as long as possible. Keep all covers on and the antiox lid on top of the dev section. Lower the dev temperature a few degrees below recommended and increase the dev time accordingly. That's about it.

 

[BillJ]

The recipe for developer is essentially the same regardless of the manufacturer. At this point, no one is going to spend money on a improving a product with falling sales. The only difference is HD developer has an additive that makes it work with HD film. Otherwise the life is the same. I've done testing where we ran chemistry well past its specified (usually 375 sqft/g or 9.2 sqm/l) maximum and still had good quality. The major life issue is oxidation. Maxon's recommendation regarding batch processing, antiox covers, and sealed containers are the only effective procedures.

 

[ProcessControlSolutions]

Good morning, Carlos! I have been working with film & film chemistry for over 30 years. I have discovered and I whole-heartedly recommend the Fujifilm HQ Hard Dot R.A developer. It has the best QC characteristics of any chemistry available in the market today. Long life...that's only part of it. Remember: you must mix the replenisher 1:2 with h2o not 1:3. You will see that it lasts longer & runs cleaner. Also remember: you must replenish it 250cc to 300cc per sheet of 20 x 24 film; make sure your off time replenishment or anti ox setting is at 1000cc. for the developer. Don't waste film...replenish properly!

 

[BeauchampT]

Good morning, Carlos! I have been working with film & film chemistry for over 30 years. I have discovered and I whole-heartedly recommend the Fujifilm HQ Hard Dot R.A developer. It has the best QC characteristics of any chemistry available in the market today. Long life...that's only part of it. Remember: you must mix the replenisher 1:2 with h2o not 1:3. You will see that it lasts longer & runs cleaner. Also remember: you must replenish it 250cc to 300cc per sheet of 20 x 24 film; make sure your off time replenishment or anti ox setting is at 1000cc. for the developer. Don't waste film...replenish properly!

Basically this is the only way to make developer 'last longer' - replace it with fresh developer.

We run a Kodak developer (Thermal 400), and can run it past its recommended life simply by keeping the replensihment at its maximum recommended. At that setting, you pretty much replace the developer bath every 750 m^2 or so. Bascially, it never gets old.

 

[Dan Roll]

Keep in mind every time you process a plate millions of emulsion particles are removed from the plate and introduced into the developer. Long ago these emulsion particles were relatively large and would quickly settle to the bottom of the developer tank forming a sludge requiring regular removal. The emulsions on modern plates however have particle sizes much, much smaller than older technologies and these particles remain suspended more or less evenly in the developer. The longer you go without replacing (not replenishing) your plate developer the more you risk re-deposition of this emulsion material onto the plates making the plates sensitive; meaning the plate background will repel water and attract ink to some degree, making life miserable for the poor pressman.