Follow-up: Which will produce finer-grain, Dektol 1:1 or Dektol undiluted??

TONY

-- tony (tony1234@yahoo.com), January 22, 2002

Answers

Response to DEKTOL

I doubt that dilution matters. Although I've not done any experiments, my experience is that the negative establishes the size of grain in a print and that diluting the paper developer will have no effect. Making a higher-contrast print will make grain easier to see, but not any larger or smaller. It might be that changing developers will affect grain size, though. Try it out and see for yourself.

-- Keith Nichols (knichols1@mindspring.com), January 22, 2002.

Response to DEKTOL

Dektol is a paper developer. It will produce quite a bit of grain in any dilution if used for film development.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), January 22, 2002.

Response to DEKTOL

UGGGGGG. i meant D76 1:1 vs undiluted.

-- r (ricardospanks1@yahoo.com), January 22, 2002.

Response to DEKTOL

d-76 1:1 will produce finer grain but softer image due to the etching of the silver grains.

-- bigmac (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), January 22, 2002.

Response to DEKTOL

D-76 used at full strength is a fine grain “solvent” developer. This is because it contains relatively large amounts of sodium sulfite that dissolve the edges of the grains to reduce the “apparent” grain in the negative. (Sodium sulfite has other benefits such as acting as a preservative). However, the “solvent” effect on the grains reduces the apparent sharpness or “edge affect” in the negative, which some (many?) find objectionable.

Diluting D-76 (1:1 or 1:3) strikes a more even balance between grain and sharpness, because the percentage of sodium sulfite is reduced as the dilution is increased (although this is somewhat offset by the increased development time for D-76 when diluted).

-- Michael Feldman (mfeldman@qwest.net), January 22, 2002.

If you are trying for finer grain try Microdol-X. What kind of film are you shooting?

-- Shawn E (mud007duck@lycos.com), February 02, 2002.

Tony,

I'm suprised that Ed is the only person that mention DEKTOL IS FOR PAPER! NOT FILM! If you use Dektol to process film, like ED said, it will produce grains size as golf balls(exaggerated of-course)! Highly not recommended. Just stick with D76...it's a all around FILM DEVELOPER.

-- danny liao (dtliao@yahoo.com), February 26, 2002.