Ancient developer equivalent

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WundM
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 4:37 pm

Ancient developer equivalent

Post by WundM »

Hey guys, you must remember me from my latest post, which is the latest one, since nobody wrote anything after that :) It was about some Polish expired film, Foton Fotopan S. I was very dumb and didn't even look in to the box itself for developement and technical information. After some time I eventually opened it and a nicely folded blue-font datasheet was waiting for me. To be honest I didn't expect such detailed information.

There is among others some info about sensitivity, filters and developement. The reason I write again is the last one. It is said that it can be processed in all usual developers, but recommendedly mentioned are three formulas, two of which follows like:

Foton N10

Water (40-50C) 750ml
Sodium Sulphite anhydr. 50g
Hydroquinone 3.5g
Sodium Citrate 10g
Borax (cristals) 6g
Phenidone 0.1g
Potassium Bromide 0.4g
Water to 1000 ml

Foton N11

Water (40-50C) 750ml
Sodium Sulphite anhydr. 25g
Metol 1g
Hydroquinone 2g
Sodium Carbonate 3g
Potassium Bromide 0.4g
Water to 1000 ml

Very kind of the Communist Regime to share valuable information like this, I was flattered. I wonder, what happens if I develope the roll, say, in Microphen instead of these? Or ID 11? Do I need to reduce time? Some ingredients are significantly less, some are absent. I personally do not know which chemicals do what exactly. Other than main developer stuff like Sodium Sulphite and Hydroquinone or potassium bromide, which I think reduces fogging.

Regards,
WundM

Digitaltruth
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Re: Ancient developer equivalent

Post by Digitaltruth »

If the film is expired and you don't know how it has been stored, then you will need to run a clip test to have any idea of what the best dev time will be. Old film can lose a large amount of sensitivity or become unusable, so you must test it by trial and error. If you just want to take a chance, then it would be best to overexpose the roll by at least one stop and overdevelop by up to 50%.
Digitaltruth Photo
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pirateoversixty
Posts: 221
Joined: Sun Jun 18, 2006 1:21 pm
Location: Peoria, Illinois

Re: Ancient developer equivalent

Post by pirateoversixty »

N 11 appears to be D-76 Lite. It seems to have all the same ingredients as D-76 except in smaller amounts for the same amount of water. Since D76/ID-11 are the benchmarks for developing film, I would follow the advice of the previous post if using this type developer. Otherwise, if using an HC-110 developer, 1 oz syrup to 120 oz of water for about 45' might give you a usable neg. I defer to orny if he has any opinions.
jim

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