Hi,

I'm new to Minox but had some experience in film development and printing i.e. with stuff like D-76 20 years ago.

I recently bought Ilfotec LC29. Have anybody got experience with it? My problem is that in my country (Malaysia) the normal water temp is around 28C/81F and I was wondering whether anybody has pointers in developing at that temp. since the recommended temp is something like 20C or so.

TIA.

-- C P Wong (cpwong@w3xs.com), December 03, 1999

Answers

Mr. Wong. I lived in Singapore many years ago, when I develop film I used ice cubes to cool down the developer , else the film gelatin would melt. I recall that I even used formalin to harden the film before development. I don't know what is the state of art in warm temperature developement. I keep the temperature at 20 degree for development.

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), December 03, 1999.

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the suggestion but I doubt the gelatin will melt at 28C. Can I do it with a higher dilution ratio to compensate for the higher temp since the chemical would react faster if used at higher temp.

Worst case, I would use ice-cubes to bring the temp down and that would be a bit of a hassle.

-- C P Wong (cpwong@w3xs.com), December 04, 1999.

Mr. Wong, the best thing is to do a simple test to determine the development time.

Higher temperature calls for shorter development time, cut a piece of film of 1" in length, develop it in the developer of your choice, and monitor its density until it reaches the densitiy you normal get at 20 degree C, that will be the time required.

Try first without dilution, if the time is too short, then dilute 1:1 and test again.

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), December 04, 1999.

Hi,

Finally, I managed to develop a half roll of Kodak Tri-X Plus 125 with LC29. The results is pretty satisfactory except that I got 2 looong stratches to contend with.

Developed at 28 deg C for 10 minutes with a chopstick acting the "pump" for the Minox tank! It's grainy but acceptable. Just thought you like to know.

Next thing to do is to REALLY keep those dusts away and see how my second roll go

-- C P Wong (cpwong@w3xs.com), December 23, 1999.