the first chemicals onto the empty
pan until it just began to move, then it was a matter of a few grains
at a time until the needle swung and remained in the centre. I found it
got easier with each attempt. I had in fact experimented previously using
some suger & salt, just to get the hang of it before doing any serious
work.
I hadn’t used scales since I left school
back in ‘nineteen-oatcakes’ and so it took a little time to relearn.
The very small amounts need a sure hand and some patience. E.G. The
smallest amount I had to measure was the ‘Phenidone’ in the 1st. Dev.
This was 0.04g and then 0.06g for
the Potassium. Bromide in the Col. Developer. These are very small amount
to handle and you are left wondering if you have done it right.
As there is a fair number of chemicals
involved with both Developers, it pays to have a working method, Each
piece of paper had the name and weight of the chemicals I was weighing and
they were laid out in order and then transferred to the working area where
I had all the bottles &
beakers ready for the mixing. I didn’t start the next weighing
until the first one had been completed. With so many chemicals it cou1d be
easy to get them mixed up or spilled.
All the chemicals are powders, but Oliver gave
instructions for making four into percentage solutions, I found this a
little complicated at first and it was through a phone call with Tony
Chuter of Area 18. that I was able to get the idea and confidence. These
were Pot. Bromide, which can be dissolved in 250m1 of water for a 10%
solution. I in fact I missed this by error and weighed them as stated,
which doesn’t make any difference, but I believe percentage solutions
make for longer life and easier measuring out. However I did make up the
Sodium thiocyanate, Nitrobenzim and Potassium Iodide and used them in
solutions, As Oliver commented, “It is difficult to measure accurately,
anything less than 2-10 mls. in a measuring jar and so
the need to use a syringe.
So, with the Stops, Bleach and Fixer made up
and stored in 1 litre bottles, I next tackled the two Developers. Now this
may seem very straight forward on paper, but I assure you it was quite
time consuming and I did the lot over two evenings. It wasn’t all plain
sailing either! I had a lot of help from Bob Lewis, Oliver Barron and I
suppose I shouldn’t be talking to Ron Knowles, who started this whole
thing going .in the first place. Even when I thought all was ready for
starting I met a couple of problems and as mentioned was helped out of
them by Tony. One of the
problems was already in Oliver’s notes which goes to show, you can read
things over and over and still miss something. A useful tip from Tony was
that the Colour developer is the first to go off mainly due to the CD3,
which oxidises quickly and so can be left out until a day or two before
you know you will do some processing. This I did.
Another thing is ‘filtering’ Ever since I started processing, I have
been wary about filtering too soon. I leave this a day or two for the
chemicals to mature as I think it could be possible to filter out some of
the chemicals that may not have mixed in at that early stage.
To sum up on weighing & mixing, I would
say that it is mainly an extension of what we are used to with most kits,
especially if you recall the numerous chemicals of the CR50 kits, except
of course, you have to measure out the ingredients yourself. There is no
reason why any of you couldn’t tackle this interesting side of
processing. Of course there are no guarantees of the results and it will
mean some experimenting with short lengths of film. I exposed six
l0 exp lengths of film over the long dull winter and used these and am
now ready to try my first Home-brew processing.
The Processing
The kit made up six baths and I divided the 1 litre amounts into 3
x 300ml bottles and topped up with the remainder. The formula is
recommended for processing 3 x 36exp cassettes per 300ml and so I stuck to
this, although these were 6
very short lengths.
The processing times were:- 1st Dev. =
6 and a half minutes, Stop = 2
mns; Wash = 2 mns. Reversal by light at two inches each side of spiral, Col. Dev. =
6 mns, 2nd Stop = 2mns, Wash 1 mn, Bleach = 5
rnns, Wash = l mn, Fixer = 5mns and final wash = 6mns.
I didn’t use a Stabiliser for this experiment. For reversal I gave 3
inches each side with the film out of the spiral using a No. 1
photoflood and the film in a white washing up bowl of water.
As I was only using one film a time and 300m1
size bottles, I decided to use the