Can anyone recommend a mono bath B&W developer ?

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Can anyone recommend a mono bath B&W developer for Formapan 400 ?

Cheers all
 
I think Nik & Trick do a Bellini one, I have never used it but I am sure they will have tested it well
 
Why do you want one,? they are inferior in nearly every respect.
 
There’s cinestill df96, I’ve not used it however. Is there a reason you want mono bath rather than a traditional developer and fix?
 
I’ve used Cinestill Df96 but only on OOD film and it’s been fine. I need to do a side by side test using a standard b&w developer so I can get a proper comparison.
Its quick and very simple to use
Why do you want one,? they are inferior in nearly every respect.
I’d be interested to hear why your experience leads you to this, is it the contrast, grain what did you find to be inferior?
As I said I can only base my findings on the film I’ve processed so far but I’m a convert.

Zero Image 5x4 Pinhole, Expired Adox 50, Cinestill Df96 6minutes at 21 degrees.
BE202BAD-64CA-4AFA-83BA-D705469FEF2B.jpeg
 
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I’ve used Cinestill Df96 but only on OOD film and it’s been fine. I need to do a side by side test using a standard b&w developer so I can get a proper comparison.
Its quick and very simple to use

I’d be interested to hear why your experience leads you to this, is it the contrast, grain what did you find to be inferior?
As I said I can only base my findings on the film I’ve processed so far but I’m a convert.

Zero Image 5x4 Pinhole, Expired Adox 50, Cinestill Df96 6minutes at 21 degrees.
View attachment 286781

It is a compromise too far.
of course there is nothing new about it they tried it first in Victorian times.
By combining developer and fixer it is a race against time.
A very active developer is combined with a dilute slow working fixer.
This allows sufficient time for the developer to work before the fixer removes the silver halide in the emulsion.
It has the advantage that neither the development time nor the temperature are critical, but must be long enough to be complete.
but it has to work at a far more neutral PH than is usual. Developers work best when alkali fixers when acidic.
most of the problems come from the increasing amount of free silver and development products as more films are processed.
and the very real danger of under fixing. resulting in staining and patchiness.

There is also the problem that shadows are the slowest to develop fully and are always attacked by the fixer before completion.
highlight on the other hand can be favourably held back before they block up.

There can be some solvent reduction in the granularity depending on the film type. but as it uses a very active developer grain is not good to start with.

All in all the whole process is a compromise. and there is no way to adjust development, to increase or decrease density/speed, or adjust contrast to a required gamma for printing. It works better on some films than others, but you can not know until you try them. the data available is very subjective.

It is something most new to film processing play with, but never for very long. I tried it first in about 1945 using a formula from the B J Almanac of Photography..
I showed it again to someone in the 70's as they wanted to try it.... true it can develop a film, But why bother when there are far better and more versatile ways?
 
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I used a monobath for some press work in the 1970s and it worked quite well. If I'd been doing technical stuff it would have been inappropriate but when speed of delivery is essential, a bottle of monobath is very useful.
 
I thought about using Cinestill as you can push pull using its temperature which could be usfull if i have had to shoot the Holga outside of it's best exposure range. Ideally I would like to develop one film at a time as I finish it as it may take me upto a year to shoot enough to process in a batch making use of the chemical in one got to keep costs down. How long would normal chemicals last ? Is there any secrete to storing them and if I were to do it in the normal way how do I know exactly which three chemicals I need ? Is it a case of just buying all three from the same manufacturer ? The film I will be processing first is Formapan 400 as I have a number of rolls to get through in both 135 and 120.
 
Fixer and stop...any make you like really, they don't need to be from the same manufacturer as the developer.
 
I thought about using Cinestill as you can push pull using its temperature which could be usfull if i have had to shoot the Holga outside of it's best exposure range. Ideally I would like to develop one film at a time as I finish it as it may take me upto a year to shoot enough to process in a batch making use of the chemical in one got to keep costs down. How long would normal chemicals last ? Is there any secrete to storing them and if I were to do it in the normal way how do I know exactly which three chemicals I need ? Is it a case of just buying all three from the same manufacturer ? The film I will be processing first is Formapan 400 as I have a number of rolls to get through in both 135 and 120.


In powder form Most developers and fixers last for many years if sealed. stop bath is just acetic acid so lasts for ever.
I have a large tin of D&^ developer powder that is a good few years old. My expectation is that it will be perfect if opened.
I could then divide it up into five lots and reseal, if you have a can of nitrogen to top them with they would last even better.

But to be honest if you find chemicals to expensive to use in the normal way, perhaps wet photography is not for you.
 
The fact that they last indefinitely is a a good point that way I could process each film as I use it I'll go with the standard method most likely with Ilford chems.
 
The fact that they last indefinitely is a a good point
Most developers go off quickly once exposed to air. The one general exception is Rodinal and its clones but even it has a limited life having been opened.
 
It
Most developers go off quickly once exposed to air. The one general exception is Rodinal and its clones but even it has a limited life having been opened.

It looks like I'm back to the original plan of bulk developing every 6 to 12 months !
 
It looks like I'm back to the original plan of bulk developing every 6 to 12 months !
When I write "quickly" I don't mean "immediately".

Full strength developer (concentrate) supplied in a bottle will usually last a couple of months or more if you take out the quantity required and close the bottle immediately. If you exclude the maximum amount of air by, for example, putting glass marbles in to replace the volume of liquid you've removed, you can extend that quite considerably. You can also get nitrogen sprays to displace the air in the bottle which do the same thing. The Rodinal formulae can last years once opened but as the bottle gets emptied the remaining concentrate will be more liable to oxidisation.

Diluted goes off far more quickly. Print developer left in the dish is generally unusable the following morning and diluted film developer is similarly short lived. Some film developers are more resistant to oxidation, provided they are kept in well sealed containers between use. D76 will last for two or three weeks if used that way.

If you're serious about this, get a copy of Steve Anchell's "Darkroom Cookbook" which contains much useful information and may save you a lot of mistakes.
 
Pryrocat and many of the related catchecol based developers have a very long shelf life especially when part a is mixed with glycol instead of water.

My bottle is at least 3 years old and still working fine.
 
Again thanks everyone, I have just had a quick look at the developing info for Formapan 400 it give a time for 20 degrees and then another time for 30 degrees would this be plus or minus so many seconds as it doesn't say which is the case !
 
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