"Home Made" developer

Sangoma

Sangoma

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Steve, Coventry, England
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Some time ago I saw a discussion on a home made developer, I thought it was on here, but after an hour of searching, can't find it.
I don't think it was Pyrocat (though it might have been) as the original name is was credited to was a German (or similar) looking name.

I remembered it being interesting as it seemed to be quite flexible in use and have a long storage life.

Does this mean anything to anyone?

Or was I dreaming? :)
 
There have definitely been some discussions on the subject - including use of coffee for developing. I'm sure one of the tyro pyro's will be along soon...
 
There has been a discussion here on a homemade Rodinal equivalent. Is that what you're thinking of? It uses household ingredients - or more household and hardware shop products rather than those from a chemical supplier.

Otherwise, you can buy the raw chemicals to make up a large number of other developers from easily found formulae.
 
Two homemade developers in this thread

www.talkphotography.co.uk

Developing with caffeine?

This popped up on my Google news feed and it looked so odd I had to share to see if this is actually a thing? http://caffenol.blogspot.com/?m=1
www.talkphotography.co.uk www.talkphotography.co.uk
 
StephenM said:
There has been a discussion here on a homemade Rodinal equivalent. Is that what you're thinking of? It uses household ingredients - or more household and hardware shop products rather than those from a chemical supplier.

Otherwise, you can buy the raw chemicals to make up a large number of other developers from easily found formulae.
Click to expand...
I've tried looking for chemicals online, seems very hard to find.
 
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In the 1960s, some of the chemist/photo shops would sell you small quantities of chemicals for making up developers. I think that more or less died out by the end of the 1970s,
 
Found the exact one I saw before 510 Pyro that was invented by Jay DeFehr, (OK so the name is not German :) )
Now I should be able to find the formula


Edit:

first one http://johnesimmons.com/510-pyro/
 
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Sangoma said:
Found the exact one I saw before 510 Pyro that was invented by Jay DeFehr, (OK so the name is not German :) )
Now I should be able to find the formula
Click to expand...
Id suggest getting a bottle here - support the independants, I looked at also making it but the amounts you need to buy in bulk make it pricey up front

zoneimaging-photochemicals.co.uk

510 Pyro — Zone Imaging

510 Pyro is a modern award-winning staining developer giving exceptional fine grain, high sharpness, full film speed with unique very long tonal range. It has a multi-year shelf life and is used very dilute making it very economical. It has been optimised for all three of the digitising, darkroom pr
zoneimaging-photochemicals.co.uk zoneimaging-photochemicals.co.uk

You can test it for £25
 
acrobatic_Citron said:
Id suggest getting a bottle here - support the independants, I looked at also making it but the amounts you need to buy in bulk make it pricey up front

zoneimaging-photochemicals.co.uk

510 Pyro — Zone Imaging

510 Pyro is a modern award-winning staining developer giving exceptional fine grain, high sharpness, full film speed with unique very long tonal range. It has a multi-year shelf life and is used very dilute making it very economical. It has been optimised for all three of the digitising, darkroom pr
zoneimaging-photochemicals.co.uk zoneimaging-photochemicals.co.uk

You can test it for £25
Click to expand...
Yes, I have that site in my favourites.

No doubt I will buy some ready made first, as yet I don't know how it is going to go, so don't want to make what wont be used..
 
It's easy enough to make. You need a good scale, and the chemicals... thats probably the hard part these days, the ilford manual of photography had formulas in it if I remember rightly,
I remember buying Sodium thiosulphate in bulk at one time, think it was a hunderedweight sack, I remember them putting it in the van with a forklift (it was split between 3 of us) that was back when I did bromiles, so a long time back.
I suspect H&S make getting the various chemicals a lot harder now.
 
There was a thread about Caffenol on a while ago and I did post my formula for Parodinal a homebred Rodinal

www.talkphotography.co.uk

Developing with caffeine?

This popped up on my Google news feed and it looked so odd I had to share to see if this is actually a thing? http://caffenol.blogspot.com/?m=1
www.talkphotography.co.uk www.talkphotography.co.uk
 
The dark room cook book is worth a read if you're wanting mix chems from scratch. D23 is simple to make and the chemicals are pretty obtainable. I've made up a soup called obsidian aqua before too, it was a nice developer and the chemicals weren't hard to get either.
 
I have decided to try Pyrocat HD first, and use Bellini Hydrofen as the "normal" developer.
Also intend to give the monobath developer a try, just for fun.

​

 
Sangoma said:
I have decided to try Pyrocat HD first, and use Bellini Hydrofen as the "normal" developer.
Also intend to give the monobath developer a try, just for fun.

​

Click to expand...
hd the two bath one? My 510 is in storage until I have a dedicated space, stained the white worktop! It was sitting there for less than a minute!
 
@pentaxpete mixes up his own devs, I've definitely seen him mention his homemade 510 PYRO and a few others like ID11, FX4 and FX37.
He without question knows his onions. and would probably be full of solid advice regarding the methodology and economics of mixing your own.. :)
 
Yes Folks -- I'm HERE !! I was 'Bequeathed' a Load of Chemicals from a Camera Club member who moved to Cornwall and went completely Digital but when I was working I had an account with Johnsons of Hendon ( Gone BROKE years ago!! ) Then for many many Years I used a Chemical Balance with weights ' Saved From The Dump' when I was a Photographer at University College London for 8 years, then my Kids treated me to an Electronic Scales weighing up to 50grams Max - very small from 'Amazon' and I use plastic cup things from Jelly , best not to put your chemicals on Paper sheets.
 
I have made up my own 'brews' for probably forty years. I used to buy my chemicals from a company called RAYCO in Barnsley. They published a book called 'Rayco Photographic Fromulae' which I still have and use. It has formulae for developers, fixers, reducers, toners and all sorts of interesting things such as the Gum Bichromate and Cyanotype processes.
It also covers early colour processing.
The Ilford Manual of Photography also has many useful formulae.
The last lot of chemicals I bought was from Silverprint. I have noticed that things have changed. Acetic acid seems to have been replaced by citric acid and sodium thiosulphate seems to have been replaced by ammonium thiosulphate. Environmental reasons maybe? I don't know. I often use the Rayco formulae to reverse develop Pan F to make B&W slides.
I grew up using chemical processes for photography and still love doing it. I use a digital camera regularly but still nothing can beat the satisfaction of watching a print 'come up' in the developer.
Making up chemicals and processing films is a time consuming bussiness but for me it is a normal part of the process.
 
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