I see in the Film Developer Cook Book that the authors recommend FX-15 as a film developer for faster films like Tri-X. I'm shooting Tri-X now and developing it in D-76. I'm happy with the results but for a "2/3 stop film speed increase and better image quality" I'm interested.

Has anyone tried FX-15? (I think the book said it was the old Paterson Acutol.) Are you pleased with the results?

I appreciate any feedback.

Jerry

-- Jerry Merz (jerry_merz@yahoo.com), May 02, 2002

Answers

I'm playing with the idea of making ascorbate version of FX-15. I think it is a good idea to have metol in addition to PQ, but I am more interested in how ascorbate can perform in this type of formula. The key is to seek a good balance between M and PQ or M and P-ascorbate. You see a part of Crawley's intention in relatively large amount of metol and bromide.

Frankly, with original FX-15, you can get speed comparable to XTOL or slightly more, but I don't know about the "better image quality" part. D-76 1+1 is hard to beat despite the claims people who love exotic ingredients make.

If you like to experiment along similar line of thinking, I suggest making up some batch of ascorbate version of D-76 I posted here before, and adding small amount of phenidone solution. I suggest 0.025g/l as the starting point (in D-76Ad 1+1). I like to use ascorbic acid as a part of the buffering system instead of Crawley's trademark carbonates-borate mixture.

-- Ryuji Suzuki (rsuzuki@rs.cncdsl.com), May 02, 2002.

Jerry, you can make things a lot simpler for yourself if you use Ilford HP5+ and develop it in Ilford Microphen. You'll get the speed increase and still maintain the fine grain. Microphen is very similar to Crawley's FX 18.

-- Eugene (TIAGEM@aol.com), May 02, 2002.

Microphen is noticeably grainier than D-76H with HP5+ both at 1+1 in my experience. I do like Microphen though.

-- Ryuji Suzuki (rsuzuki@rs.cncdsl.com), May 02, 2002.