Kodak marketed this high acutance developer during the late 50's and early 60's. It was very popular in Europe but was never marketed in the US. The actual formula was never published, however Geoffrey Crawley suggested
that the working solution had a composition similar to that given below.
In HDD the amount of sulfite is kept low in relation to the amount of Metol
thus ensuring the controlled decomposition of the developing agent. This is
in contrast to FX-1 which uses the minimal amount of Metol with sufficient
sulfite to protect the developing agent.
Distilled water (50°C) .......................... 750 ml
Metol ............................................... 2.0 g
Sodium sulfite (anhy) .......................... 1.0 g
Sodium hydroxide ............................... 0.5 g
Potassium iodide, 0.001% .................... 5.0 ml
Distilled water to make ........................ 1.0 l
This developer should be made up just before use as it does not keep and should be used full strength.
Are there some common development times/temps available for common films such as tmax, trix, hp5+ so forth... or will a trial run be required for each film.
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-Karl Blessing Karl Blessing.com The Bokeh
Color Film always existed. It's just the world was always black and white till recently.
I could find very little on this developer other than Crawley's mention of it in the BJ. It was not marketed in the US. I did find one post in England with a sample print or two. They said that sharpness was very good. I thought it looked interesting because the mechanism is entirely different from other actuance developers. Haven't had a chance to try it myself. I would only use it with films of ISO 200 or less to avoid excess grain.
I was hoping that one of our older european members might remember it.
If I can get hold of the chemicals to make it, I'll likely try it on some of the slow stuff I have such as the Kodak Tech Pan 25, AgfaPan 25, Kodak UltraTec (ISO 6-12), Kodalith (ISO 12), or Ilford PanF+ 50, I'll probally try either Ultratec or Kodalith since I can least try to develop by inspection.
__________________
-Karl Blessing Karl Blessing.com The Bokeh
Color Film always existed. It's just the world was always black and white till recently.
There is a method for determining the development time for a new film. You place a drop of the developer on a piece of the film and count the number of seconds before a noticeable darkening appears. You then multiply the time by a factor to determine the developing time. Can't remember what the factor is -- perhaps someone can help.
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In the Darkroom Cookbook, I could not find this formula, but what I did find was something called Crawley's FX1 Basically 100ml Water (52C) + Metol 0.5g + Sodium Sulfite 5.0g + Sodium carbonate, anhydrous 2.5g + Ptassium iodide, .001% 5.0ml + Water to make 1.0 Litre
It states that undiluted developing time is between 7 to 14 minutes at 68F, and that the developer may be diluted 1:3 for extreme contrast. So.... if this developer is very similar, then development time may be about the same.
there was another Crawely under the category of "Superfine Grain Developers - Extreme Grain Reduction" called Crawley's FX10 which was basically Sodium Sulfite 100g + Kodak CD-2 7.5g + Hydroquinone 6g + Borax 4g + Boric Acid crystalline 4g + Water to make 1L, that was stated to have a dev time between 6 to 11 minutes @ 68F.
but I figured the FX1 is a better base to go off of since its closest matched in chemistry. It mentioned FX10 was intended to be reused without replenishment to develop 6 or 7 rolls per litre. also "This is the only true superfine-grain developer known not to cause a loss of emulsion speed".
__________________
-Karl Blessing Karl Blessing.com The Bokeh
Color Film always existed. It's just the world was always black and white till recently.
This formula was 'popular' in Europe. I do not know from where this statement came. I never saw the formula, and I cannot find any indication that the formula was popular. It is not a high definition recipe but a high acutance formula ( as far as I can see). And the high acutance formulae, usually based on adjacency effects never had a long life. Anyway, the source of the European popularity is not clear.
In the US, the marketing of this developer has been stopped by Kodak.
The formula was never published by Kodak but Crawley stated that from his investigation that the formula given was close to Kodak's commercial product. Kodak called it High Definition Developer, HDD
There is an english website as I noted and the author said that the developer was quite popular at the time he used it in the 1960's.
The formula was never published by Kodak but Crawley stated that from his investigation that the formula given was close to Kodak's commercial product. Kodak called it High Definition Developer, HDD
There is an english website as I noted and the author said that the developer was quite popular at the time he used it in the 1960's.
Can you give the address of that web site. The description of the images was 'engraving like'. I cannot imagine that the high acutance was the flavour of the 1960's. I do not remember this developer in any way. And a recent research in the literature has no result. Therefore, I wonder what the popularity might have been. Anyway, the Kodak people in the US took the developer out of the market.
Very odd formula. I never saw one quite like this, especially called an HDD. Formulas in the 60s and later for HDDs took an entirely different direction.
Kodak High Definition Developer 
Linear Mode
