Could anyone enlighten me on the "2 baths solution developer and its times and affects on negs." Also, is there a web site of comparison photos? Thank you all.

-- sajjad (afaq_2001@yahoo.com), December 28, 2000

Answers

Response to 2 baths solution developere

Two bath developers put all the developing agent in the first bath and the accelerator in the second bath.

Film absorbs the developing agent while in the first bath, but almost no development occurs until its put in the accelerator (second bath). development is limited by the amount of developer absorbed in the first bath, so when development is done, there's no more developer to allow overdevelopment.

Advantages of 2 bath develpment: It's simple. It give high quality results. It's impossible to overdevelop. You could under develop, but you'd have to work really hard at it. The developer lasts a long time. No reduction in quality with repeated use.

Disadvantages: you can't expand the development (that is, develop to a higher contrast). If you need higher contrast negatives, use a different developer.

Typically you develop in the first bath for 3 minutes, drain but don't rinse, and develop for 3 minutes in the second bath. Temperature doesn't matter much. Variations in time don't matter much.

I'm currently exploring 2 bath developers, and so far like what I see. I don't know of any web sites, however. Why not just try some and see if you like the results? Diafine is commonly available, and Cachet, I think, makes one also. Other than that, you have to mix your own from scratch. Photographer's Formulary offers one or two divided developer (that's the alternate name for 2 bath) kits.

-- Charlie Strack (charlie_strack@sti.com), December 28, 2000.

Response to 2 baths solution developere

I have been using split baths of about 12 years and absolutely love them. Divided D76 is an extremely fine grain developer that is generally same speed where as Diafine is a fine grain but high accutance which tends to be a beautiful addition to your darkroom. As stated, you really cannot over develop and when you go to print your negs, you will find a small amount of work you will need to do... key word there is SMALL! You can make DD76 from scratch or buy it in kits (I have a recipe if your interested) and they both can be used over and over and over! To anwser your question about comparasions, I haven't seen one but I haven't looked either. Cheers

-- Scott Walton (scotlynn@shore.net), December 29, 2000.

Diafine does a wonderful job. It's hard to mess it up. It's now my main developer primarily because of the uniformity of development results. It will even work with Tech Pan by simply developing in the "B" solution for 45 seconds and yields an EI of 80-100.

-- Gene Crumpler (nikonguy@att.net), January 01, 2001.