Response to PMK Pyro and Delta 400

The ratio, as described in the last response, is 1:2:100. The volume of working solution is the same for other developers, ie. 250 ml per roll. PMK is quite active and no additional volume is required. It is important, in order to avoid uneven development, that you use a 'pre-soak.' Use distilled water with a drop or two of Edwal LFN (a wetting agent that will not affect the developer) per roll. Give a two minute soak with intermittant agitation. It is best to always use distilled water for all film development. That way no impurities, especially metals, will affect the activity of the PMK working solution. Use a plain water stop bath. Remember the alkalinity of develper is critical to its operation and just a few percent lower pH will render it inactive. Give about 3-4 fill/drain cycles before adding the fixer. Do NOT use a hardening fixer! (If you do, you will reduce dramitically the image stain and you won't get it back in the 'after-bath' of used developer. (The used developer is used as an alkaline bath to restore the stain lost in the fixer. You could use an after bath of 2% Kokalk solution if you wanted.) The best results are from Photographers' Formulary TF-4 Archival fixer. This is an ALKALINE fixer and will not diminish the pyro stain. It will also remove the magenta tint from T-Max and Delta film. Use this for film only. Despite the proclaimations of the Formulary, this fixer is not suitable for prints. The water stop bath required leads to developer stains. Also, it is important to use the ACTUAL speed of your film (0.1 >B+F.) For Delta 400, the true speed is 250, Delta 100 is 50. D-100 and PMK is a particularly spectacular combination. Hope this helps.

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