An Experiment with HC-110

[PeanutHorst]

I have strayed away from the golden elixir/soup known as HC-110 for some time, as I was told it was toxic. Also, I didn't have the resources to purchase it.

I got my hands on a Euro batch from the 1980s today.

I used it to process Konica Pan 100 at 100 ASA.

I used Dilution B: with a hint of Anti-fog #1.

Note: Anti-fog #1 inclusion is by no means mandatory, it was just a passing fancy.

HC-110 concentrate: 32mL
Anti-Fog #1 (Benzotriazole): 8mL (pure)
Water, 20 degrees: up to 225mL (for my Rondinax 35U tank)

The results produced were like nothing I had ever seen before. Vibrant, full of crispness, balanced nicely, and the negatives had a sort of Rodinal 1:25 quality to them.

The development time was 5 minutes, constant agitation, and the fixing time was 5 minutes in Hypam with the same constant agitation.

The same instructions should work perfectly for Kodak Plus-X and T-Max 100, and Ilford FP4.
For HP5, T-Max 400, Delta 400, Tri-X, and Agfapan 400, a development time of 8 minutes should be suitable with constant agitation. (Based on my own calculations)

The Konicapan data has been submitted to the Dev Chart. I hope you may all gain a smile or maybe something else useful from my folly.

[pentaxpete]

As you are nearer to Japan than the UK you can probably get the Japanese films which are not imported into UK : I have never seen Konica Pan B/W film here, only the colour neg and slide emulsions ( all now discontinued since Konica-Minolta crashed out of Photography!)

[PeanutHorst]

Probably. The Konicapan was worse than the Agfapan 25 and Agfapan APX 100 in my opinion.

pentaxpete, you ever used HC-110 for developing films?

(as i found out today, it also does paper remarkably well!)

[pentaxpete]

Have I ever used HC110 ? Only ONCE I remember when I was a part-time photography tutor on Barking College, Essex (UK), and the stores used to hand out some to students; like a thick syrup which had to be heavily diluted but was a bit fierce if you over-developed films !

[PeanutHorst]

Well, the way i did it (see above) - using Benzotriazole as a restrainer - seemed to work well in straight dilution (1:6) on FP4 plus - which i used for the first time yesterday