Thanks for the input on brown toner questions everyone.

Although XTOL is my developer for almost everything now, I am playing with PMK on the films that I use and just started to experiment. I have started testing with TX because I know it so well in a lot of developers. A couple of things that I have noted are

1. The curve shape seems way different in PMK for TX than anything I have ever seen

2. The fog seems to be much more using PMK so my printing time for max black has gone up.

3. PMK seems to make any lens flare at all really bad, I lose all contrast and have to print at grade 4. I have a lens that is really great except against the light where it flares a little. With PMK this lens is useless in backlit situations.

Has anyone else seen the same kinds of things?

-- Robert W Boyer (rboyer@mindspring.com), October 29, 2000

Answers

It seems something is very wrong here. PMK exhibits much less fogging than Xtol. While TX is a rather foggy film, it should not have any more fog with PMK than Xtol, certainly. Also, if you are requiring a grade 4 paper, it indicates that your developing time is too short. Normally a PMK negative appears somewhat thinner than a regular developed negative. I strongly suggest you get The Book of Pyro by Gordon Hutchings and follow his methods. You may want to try some HP- 5+, a much less foggy film with a genuine 400 speed. Much straighter curve as well.

-- Michael D Fraser (mdfraser@earthlink.net), October 30, 2000.

I second the suggestion to get Hutching's "Book of Pyro". You should also know that, due to the stain, which acts as density, your usual densitomiter readings will be off. Use the blue channel of a color densitometer to get accurate readings for plotting curves. Make sure you keep the film submerged in the developer as much as possible to reduce arial staining. Also try using a water stop, a non-hardening fixer (preferably alkaline) and make sure you return the film to the developer after the fix for two minutes with agitation to set the stain. I've had absolutely no fogging problems with PMK at all so give it another try. Hope this helps, ;^D)

-- Doremus Scudder (ScudderLandreth@compuserve.com), November 01, 2000.

I have not processed a lot of film yet with PMK, but the two rolls I have done with PMK (both Tri-X) were wonderful, printed perfectly on grade 2 and had very fine grain. I was very impressed. I used violent agitation, a 14:00 development time (@ 21 degrees), a running water stop, TF-4 fixer, and a two-minute used developer post-bath.

-- Jim MacKenzie (photojim@yahoo.com), November 03, 2000.