Old School B&W developer question

[cooltouch]

Well, since there is no darkroom subforum here, I decided I'd just post this message in Open Talk. I'm hoping some of you darkroom-inclined folks might want to respond to this.

I have some old Plus-X Pan that I've had in the freezer for years, that I bought from a friend who had kept it in his freezer for years. Expiry date is 1983.

I used to shoot quite a bit of B&W, usually Tri-X then later T-Max, but that kind of tapered off over 15 years ago, so this stuff has just sat in the freezer since then.

Anyway, I have a small developing tank, and I plan to run a test roll of this film through my trusty old Nikon F2, and develop it, see if it's still any good. Back in the day, I used D-76 pretty much for all my B&W developing tasks, fixing it with regular old Kodak fixer.

Looking at the info sheet that comes with the film, I see that Kodak recommends HC110, D-76, or Microdol-X. I checked with B&H and see that all three formulations are still available. I'll probably just order some of the D-76, but I'd be curious to know what you folks use, what you might have used with PXP back in the day, and why you prefer it.

Best,

Michael

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by cooltouch

Well, since there is no darkroom subforum here, I decided I'd just post this message in Open Talk. I'm hoping some of you darkroom-inclined folks might want to respond to this.

I have some old Plus-X Pan that I've had in the freezer for years, that I bought from a friend who had kept it in his freezer for years. Expiry date is 1983.

I used to shoot quite a bit of B&W, usually Tri-X then later T-Max, but that kind of tapered off over 15 years ago, so this stuff has just sat in the freezer since then.

Anyway, I have a small developing tank, and I plan to run a test roll of this film through my trusty old Nikon F2, and develop it, see if it's still any good. Back in the day, I used D-76 pretty much for all my B&W developing tasks, fixing it with regular old Kodak fixer.

Looking at the info sheet that comes with the film, I see that Kodak recommends HC110, D-76, or Microdol-X. I checked with B&H and see that all three formulations are still available. I'll probably just order some of the D-76, but I'd be curious to know what you folks use, what you might have used with PXP back in the day, and why you prefer it.

Best,

Michael

I always used Microdol-X for PXP until I standaridized on D-76 and Tri-X.

Why don't you go to APUG (Analog Processing User Group) and ask there. See what suggestions people there have.

[djroga]

I used HC110 primarily because it was the choice available where I first took classes and later taught. Became a creature of habit and did not change...sorry I could not help more.

[RightAngle]

I use HC110 on Tmax and some Ilford stuff as well.

[Dobick]

I have lately been playing with D-76 after using up all of the HC110 that I had. I used the d-76 on some expired ilford that had been kept in less than optimum conditions, and I was able to get it to come out fine. In reality though -- I use whatever the camera store has in stock at the moment...

Good luck and have fun!

[bondarnes]

My developer of choice was Ethol UFG (ultra fine grain) especially if I needed to push the film. But it's probably no longer available.

[Murph]

I liked Rodinal, but Microdol-X was what I used on the majority of my film.

[picman]

I used Rodinal all the time, I like the sharp grain it left. Additional bonus is the concentrate had a long shelf-life.
More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodinal

I surprised that it is still made and available.

[venchka]

Why not just go to Camera Co-op and buy what you need?

D-76 is the base standard. I would expose 1 roll at 64 and see what happens. Fog may be a problem.

What can I offer you in trade? By the way, Freestyle is selling house label Plus-X new. Cheap.

ps: I used to put everything in D-76 1:1. A few things in Rodinal. Lately everything is going in Xtol 1:3.