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High Acutance Develper
In his book "Photographic Processing Chemistry" (1974 Focal Press), L.F.A. Mason lists a typical High Acutance Developer.
This may possibly be the formula for Hyfin, which was Ilford's High Acutance developer, available from 1961 until the early 1970's. Mason calls it a typical formula:
High Acutance Developer
Metol 0.5g
Sodium Sulphite (anhyd) 5g
Sodium Carbonate (anhyd) 5g
Water to 1 litre
Development times 15-25 minutes
Requires a minimum of 600ml of chemistry per 35mm or 120 film.
Mason notes that additions to the formula have been proposed, either 0.1g/litre Potassium Bromide or 5ml of 0.0001% Potassium Iodide solution. (He may be referring to other similar formulae like FX-1 etc)
Hyfin was sold in packets containing 5 sachets of developer each one making up 600ml of solution. I have two packets of Hyfin & will weigh the contents of a scchet next time I'm in the UK.
Hyfin instructions were:
Pan F & FP3 - 18 minutes @ 20°C
Continuous agitation for the first 10 seconds then 5 seconds every minute.
Gives 1 stop more effective film speed
In the early 60's there were 3 High Definition devopers availabe in the UK, lford's Hyfin, Kodak's High-Definition Developer & Johnson's Definol.
It's no co-incidence that Hyfin & HDD are very similar to Beutler's High Definition developer, sold as Neofin Blue, and another similar developer is Crawley's FX-1 formula.
The major differences are that Beutler has 1g Metol/litre & Crawley's FX-1 only 2.5g Carbonate + 15ml 0.0001% KI, compared to the formula above. The decrease in the Metol level compared to Beutler is likely to increase the edge effects & acutance further.
The addition of Potassium Iodide is likely to have little or no effect now as most modern films contain far higher levels in their emulsions, particularly Tmax & Delta films. It may have been more important with certain films Crawley speculates that it was needed in HDD for Pan-X
Mason would have known Crawley and his work, Ilford began manufacturing his chemistry for Paterson around 1963.
Ian
Last edited by Ian Grant; 08-02-2009 at 05:32 AM.
Reason: add
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 Originally Posted by Ian Grant  Acutance, it was OK but the grain was more than Aculux or ID-11 and tonally it wasn't quite as nice. But the negatives were sharp.
Ian FX-39 would appear to be Paterson's current high acutance product.
Tom
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The Tetenal Neodyn developers later became Neofin, although I don`t know what the differences between them were. Apart from TFX-2, Neofin Blue is the only Beutler type of developer that I know of that is currently available.
Paterson Acutol and FX-39 are described as high-definition developers, but whether they were/are of the Beutler type, I don`t know.
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Wasn't it Neofyn Blau  I remember trying some Tetenal developer that came in glass phials, there was a choice of Red or Blue. Tetenal kept changing distributors so it was hard finding their products at times in the UK.
Ian
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Originally Posted by Ian Grant Wasn't it Neofyn Blau I remember trying some Tetenal developer that came in glass phials, there was a choice of Red or Blue. Tetenal kept changing distributors so it was hard finding their products at times in the UK.
Ian You can buy Neofin Blue directly from Tetenal along with their other products and it still comes supplied in glass phials. www.tetenal.co.uk
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Keith you actually high-light a major difference between European and US photography, it's there in the images made by European photographers in France & Germany particularly before WWII.
While it's there in history, in prints, collections etc it's also present in the developers, quite strange to us now but it was a different way or approach to working. This carries on after WWII where even Kodak are making & selling developers never seen or made in the US, and as PE (Ron Mowrey) has indicated unknown to US researchers).
Ian
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Both approaches worked quite well though Ian. Both Europe and the US produced some fine photographers and fine photographs from the chemistry available. This shows what I have said over and over. There is no magic bullet. It is the guy behind the camera in virtually every case.
PE
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Originally Posted by Photo Engineer
Both Europe and the US produced some fine photographers and fine photographs from the chemistry available.
This shows what I have said over and over. There is no magic bullet. It is the guy behind the camera in virtually every case.
PE
Does that include fine colour photography without using Kodak or Fuji photo-chemistry?
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Originally Posted by Ian Grant Wasn't it Neofyn Blau I remember trying some Tetenal developer that came in glass phials, there was a choice of Red or Blue. Tetenal kept changing distributors so it was hard finding their products at times in the UK.
Ian I have seen references for Neodyn and Neofin, although I am not sure if they`re the same or whether Neofin superceded Neodyn as an improved formulation of the developers.
If you try to download the MSDS for Neofin Blue, you might find that you have to type Neofin Blau to find it, although it has been a while since I last searched for it.
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I have found it and I hope this link works. http://www.tetenal.com/sidaopener_uk...auk/100126.pdf
It mentions Metol, Hydroquinone and Phenidone in the concentrate.
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Originally Posted by Keith Tapscott. Does that include fine colour photography without using Kodak or Fuji photo-chemistry? Well, that depends on whether you wish to denigrate Agfa color products.
They happen to have made a fine line of color from the earliest days. I found that the only thing I didn't like about Agfa color film was the raw stock keeping which was not up to Kodak at the last I tested them both.
So, now the ball is in your court!
PE
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