Sunday, July 22, 2012

HC-110 Dilution M

After a week of considering how I would experiment with HC-110 to make a Dilution "M".  There is a Dilution "J" which is 1+150 of HC-110 which is named after Larry Dressler's Flickr Alias "Inetjoker" also known as "Joker". 
Results with Dil. J are very good, to excellent, with very good sharpness and a fine grain throughout.
As I'm trying a different Dilution, which I am designating as "DILUTION M" which is 1mL of HC-110 Syrup, plus 250mL of water.
I started out with setting up a simple still-life series of photos using my Honeywell Spotmatic SPII, SunPAK Auto622 Pro Handlemount Flash and AC Slave Strobe w/Translucent White Umbrella.
I adjusted the lighting from shot to shot, but also kept the handlemount flash to a minimum of ƒ/2.8 in AUTO mode.
As I wanted the most amount of shadow with soft highlights, I made sure that the AC Slave was going to do most of the flash work, and the SunPAK flash was specifically used only for a trigger.

After taking about 12 frames using my HELIOS 44-2 58mm ƒ/2 lens, I decided to switch to my Carl Zeiss Jena T* 50mm ƒ/2.8 lens instead.  Both are excellent lenses, but the CZJT lens did give a much higher level of sharpness, which I expected.
After about 24 or 25 frames of film I unloaded the film in my darkroom, resetting the remainder of film in the camera to be ready to continue at a later time.  Film was then loaded into my JOBO single 35mm tank, and prepared for developing.
I was able to get about 24°C water from my tap, even after letting the cold water run a good 10 minutes prior, which I wasn't too worried about, considering it was going to be a stand develop instead of a regular develop method.
Mixing the solution of 1mL of HC-110 Syrup (The thick yellow syrup and not the already diluted solution) to 250mL of water (I used 2mL of HC-110 and 500mL of water) the temperature seemed to be steady around 25°C.
I set my "flash" timer to 30:00 (it's a countdown timer that uses ADOBE FLASH) and poured in my developer.  Starting the timer I inverted continuously for the first 30s, giving the tank a few good taps afterward to dislodge any bubbles and let it sit for 29:30.
The Timer rang, as expected, at 30:00 and so I reset it, and began to invert again continuously for 00:30 again, and let it sit for an additional 29:30, giving the tank a good tap or two to again dislodge any bubbles.
I repeated again at 60:00, and prepared the "wash" for 90:00.
Prior to stop/fixing I popped into my bathroom (lights out) and dumped the developer and clipped off about ½ an inch of film (which is roughly half a frame) to inspect if the film is actually developing.  Sure enough, it developed perfectly, and I began to wash the film in the tank for 1:00 under running water.
Pouring in the fixer, I let it sit and fix for 10 minutes, and began my cleanup.
Fixed, and washed again for 20 minutes, then letting it sit in photo-flo and distilled water, I let it hang to dry over-night.


Cradled Plums
Cradled Plums - Honeywell Spotmatic SPII - Helios 44-2 Lens - Polypan F 50 - HC-110 Dil. M
Still Life Stand
Still Life Plum - Honeywell Spotmatic SPII - Helios 44-2 Lens - Polypan F 50 - HC-110 Dil. M
Still Life Stand
Plums And Bananas - Honeywell Spotmatic SPII - Carl Zeiss Jena T* Lens - Polypan F 50 - HC-110 Dil. M

6 comments:

  1. found your blog on google, while i was looking for stand developing times with polypan and hc-110.
    i tried it with polypan @ 100 asa and i think it works as well, but i havent done any prints yet.
    i think with 100 asa around 60 minutes might be enough, but i have to experiment a bit.

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  2. Sorry for such a late reply, as I have been silly busy with, well, life in general, as my wife and I are making a large move in our life.

    Anyway, Stand Developing with HC-110 and Polypan is great. 60 Minutes is about right with Polypan, whether at 50ASA or 100ASA it'll develop the highlights and shadows fairly well, and give you a balanced contrast. I prefer to use a semi-stand develop. I have done a lot of work with it as a semi-stand now, with TMAX 400, Polypan, Fomapan, and even Ilford FP4+.
    This is probably my favorite dilution. I even tried it with ORWO UN54+ but sadly, due to a camera malfunction, the film was blank. The film developed, absolutely, as the rebate marks were there, but that was all..

    Glad you like the dilution, and I hope you have great success with it! Cheers

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  3. sorry for my late reply. actually i´m trying polypan @ 400 asa but i´m not sure about stand developing or not. massive dev tells me 32 minutes at dilution b with minimal agitation. anyway, i´m going to experiment a bit. cheers !

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    Replies
    1. I hope your experiment went alright. I, for some reason, wasn't told about your reply until today (Jan. 07).
      Let me know how the MDC chart worked out for you.

      Cheers

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  4. MDC chart works fine, but stand development @ 400 asa in 90 minutes went bad. maybe a lot more time or more developer, depends on experiments.

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    Replies
    1. My experiments with Polypan and 400ASA isn't the most promising. I have pushed Polypan to 1600ASA, but it stops developing at 640ASA. It looks like 400 is about the maximum that you will get out of this film.

      So probably needs more time and or more developer for stand.
      You'd probably have to try continuous agitation for 90:00 in M for 400.. But that'll start the grain into the unbearable column.. :)

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