[johnielvis]

Can you measure the approximate pH of film and paper developer working solutions? It may be that at high pH HQ in paper developers is activated to preferentially develop more exposed areas of film,not the fog.

right--now there's another thing---so this can be happening too then..hc-110 is apparenlty not pq but but is HAS been recommended as a paper developer or a universal developer--this may not actually be the case then--just because it CAN developer paper does not mean it does so as good as paper developers.

NOW the question: would the PQ developer have the same preferential development effect with film or are the film grains too small for it to matter?

The weekend may give time to see if there's a visual difference in reversal processing of film--speed changes...dmax changed, etc. time for another "let's see what happens"....