12/15 Developer

[MurrayMinchin]

I loved the look of Ansco 120 developer, and felt Ansco 130 had too much snap and sizzle for my images, but wanted the depth, richness, and keeping qualities of Glycin...so I came up with what I call;

--------------------------12/15 Developer

750 ml...............................Hot-ish Water
12 grams............................Metol
36 grams............................Sodium Sulfite (anhydrous)
30 grams............................Sodium Carbonate (anhydrous)
45 ml.................................Potassium Bromide (10% solution)
15 grams............................Glycin
Water to make 1 litre of Stock Solution (S.S.)
Add 15 ml of 2% Benzotriazole per litre of S.S.

12/15 S.S. properly contained will easily last a year.
Dilute 1:3 for Working Solution (W.S.)
Use at 70 to 72 degrees F...warm Glycin is happy Glycin.

----------------------------Developing Time

Because I keep 12/15 W.S. for up to several months...depending how much it gets used...and because I want consistant print results over time I use the Emergence Time (E.T.) of the image in the developer, multiplied by a Development Factor (D.F.) to find development times.

This developer has a slow image E.T. so I use the E.T. of the negatives clear edge multiplied by a D.F. of 4.5 for normal development. An E.T. of 40 seconds multiplied by a D.F. of 4.5 equals a developing time of 3 minutes. When the E.T. gets to about 48 seconds I toss it because developing times start getting too long for my tastes.

Applying a larger D.F. doesn't result in an overall darkening of the image, but has proportionally more effect on the darker print values...a quality which I believe is unique to Glycin.

This developer, at least with Ilford Multigrade IV FB glossy paper, and toned in selenium, gives a beautiful richness of tone and colour when viewed under tungsten light.

A word of warning - not much of anything happens in the first minute, a little in the second, but it really picks up speed in the third.

Murray

[consumptive]

i had similar feelings about Ansco 120 and 130. Minchin's 12/15 works exactly as advertised. beautiful stuff. it's become my standard solution. thank you Murry Minchin.