I have recently developed my HP5+ and Agfa pan 400 (shooting at ISO 320) with HC110 at 18C to 20C, for 4 Min and half. Negative looks OK, but it takes at leased 200 seconds at F8 to even get some recognizable figure on the paper. What did I do wrong?

-- Hirohiko Inatome (lamia@kh.rim.or.jp), August 16, 2000

Answers

You are not using Oriental New Seagull Warmtone? Because that is the paper, which requires 3 minutes at F 5.6 at me setup for a 18*24 cm print. Compared to Ilford Multigrade or Kodak Polymax around 10 secs at F8.

How exhausted is your developer? Expose a bit of paper at 10 secs wide open lens. It should turn solid black pretty soon in the developer.

Did you change the lamp in the enlarger? Using a Kaiser 75 W instead of the required Philips 75W required 4 times more time.

You can check all three points by using a negative you have printed before succesfully, if it turns out o.k., than your latest negatives are too dense. If even this negative does not work then there is a mistake with your enlarger/developer system.

More info from you is required for a more detailed answer.

Kind regards

Wolfram

-- Wolfram Kollig (kollig@ipfdd.de), August 16, 2000.

Did you use the correct dilution of HC-110? It sounds as if the negative is over-developed.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), August 17, 2000.

Developing w/hc110

Inatome-san, I think Mr. Bufalo is correct. Sounds as though you overdeveloped the film. I used HC-110 for many years and found it to be a VERY good developer. Try diluting your solution by 1/2, 1/4.Experiment. You'll find a dilution/time temp that will suit you and you'll be happy. Hope this helps. Dave Huffman+

-- H. David Huffman (craptalk@lvcm.com), September 20, 2000.