People who've used Dektol paper developer to develop film, for a large grain effect - any tips on concentrations/dilutions of stock/development times and temperatures/adjustments to stop/fix? I know it's great to experiment, etc, but I'd rather not lose 36 possible photos if it's at all possible. I'm trying out tmax and tri-x at the moment. What if I've taken a t-max 400 at 800? Thanks.

-- Greg Brosnan (gbrosnan@infosel.net.mx), April 26, 1999

Answers

Nobody has answered so I'll weigh in. I havent any information on TMY but Kodak's publication P-255 for Tech Pan lists times for development in Dektol. They recommend 3 minutes at 68 deg F. For comparison they recommend 4 to 12 minutes for HC-110 dil B for Tech Pan. In publication F-32 they recommend 6 minutes in HC110 dil B for TMY. So for a starting point I would try 2 to 3 minutes in Dektol for TMY.

Keep in mind that 2 to 3 minutes is really short and you may get uneven development because of it. Also you might try doing a clip tests to get at the development time that works best for you before blowing a whole roll on an experiment.

-- Fritz M. Brown (brownf@idhw.state.id.us), April 29, 1999.

I know that for Tri-X exposed at 1600 ISO, Neutol can be used in dilution 1+26, 7'. That could give a hint for the Dektol dilution.

-- Lot (lotw@wxs.nl), April 30, 1999.