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Response to Japanese chemicals

from Ryuji Suzuki (rsuzuki@rs.cncdsl.com)
I haven't used packaged Japanese chemicals but there are several published formulae similar to D-76 (as you expect). However, none of them as far as I have seen is identical to D-76.

Konica SD-20
hydroquinone 3.0g
metol 1.5g
sodium metaborate 2.0g
KBr 0.5g
Na sulfite 100g
WTM 1 liter

Fuji FD-122
hydroquinone 2.5g
metol 2.5g
sodium metaborate 2.0g
KBr 0.5g
Na sulfite 100g
WTM 1 liter

Konica SD-28
hydroquinone 5.0g
metol 2.0g
borax 8.0g
boric acid 8.0g
KBr 0.4g
Na sulfite 100g
WTM 1 liter

A few comments. Japanese fine grain formulae tend to employ bromide to restrain chemical fog, whereas D-76 results in manageable but slightly higher fog level. One speculation. Japanese press photographers loved to dilute fresh D-76 with used D-76, just like people do with D-72 and paper development. It usually results in higher shadow contrast, finer grain, and slightly reduced speed. SD-20 might have attempted to get similar effect when it is fresh. SD-28 is a striking example where it provides stability of buffered D-76, slightly higher shadow contrast, and slightly finer grain. Since T-MAX films respond much less to bromide, SD-28 is practically the same as D-76d.

Konica SD-4 is an interesting two-bath developer, originally designed for motion picture. It uses 100 grams of sugar in A bath in addition to 2g hydroquinone, 5g metol, 5g Na bisulfite and 100g Na sulfite. The B bath consists of 10g Na carbonate (anhy), 100g Na sulfite, and 0.5g KBr. I have been thinking about making ascorbate version of this, but I'm not really convinced what two-bath development is good for.

There are some interesting Japan-made developers using ascorbate, but they tend to use non-borate alkali and designed for motion picture, holography, etc, possibly because these are probably not affected by the XTOL patent.

I know, this is probably not what James was looking for... I don't know exact formula of packaged chemicals. Based on rough classification, Fujidol, Super Fujidol are general purpose fine grain, Fuji's Microfine, Konica's Konicadol Fine are very fine grain formulae like Microdol-X, and Fuji's Pandol and Konica's Konicadol Super are designed to be push developer. Fuji's Super Prodol (SPD) are marketed as allround normal to push developer. I have heared most Fuji and Konica packages use phenidone. I haven't used any of these, so please don't ask me how they compare, etc.

(posted 8210 days ago)

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