HC110 made simple.

[JBrunner]

JBrunner submitted a new resource:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists) - HC110 made simple.

I thought I had posted this to the articles a long time ago, but I guess I didn't. So for the archives and the children, here it is.

I like Hc110. Especially for roll film. I don't like the convoluted "working
solution" dilutions and sub dilutions, or the short times some of the dilutions
and sub dilutions create. It should be simple to use Hc110, like Rodinal.

If you care to research, there was a method to Kodaks madness when they
created the dilutions and routines for HC110,...

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[StoneNYC]

Can you add this to the Massive Dev Chart? that way it pops up in my app?

 

[bobwysiwyg]

HC110 Notes

JBRUNNER, thanks for this. Sorry if this has been asked before, but I noted that TMax 100 and TMax 400 have the same dev dilution but yet have the same dev time. How can this be? I would think there would be some difference??

 

[JBrunner]

JBRUNNER, thanks for this. Sorry if this has been asked before, but I noted that TMax 100 and TMax 400 have the same dev dilution but yet have the same dev time. How can this be? I would think there would be some difference??

They are not the same emulsions.

 

[wiedzmin]

Jason, what minimum amount of developer per roll do you recommend? I found two recommendations one says 3ml another 6ml.

 

[Fixcinater]

As a recent convert from D76 (I finally used up what I had), this is most appreciated. I've been putting off developing anything hoping I could find some info like this. Thank you, thank you!

 

[bascom49]

http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/

All you need to know, simplified.

Charles

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Kodak dilution E 1+47 is close enought to 1+49 to provide lots of developing times.

 

[adelorenzo]

Since I switched to HC-110 I've been using Jason's information with great success for Tri-X, TMX 100, FP4+ and Pan F+ in sheets and rolls.

 

[mexipike]

JBrunner,
What do you like about HC110? I used to use it and found it nice as super diluted compensating developer and use to have a great method for pushing HP5 with semistand. I've since switched to X-Tol and pyrocat hd. I'm just curious to why you like it for roll film. I do really love working with concentrated developers.

 

[hdeyong]

I think I have found an easier way to measure the stuff. I saved an empty dish-wash soap bottle, thoroughly rinsed it, and filled it with HC-110. I have a little graduate that goes to 100, and I fill it with water to 88. (I even put a little mark on it at 88). I then hold the squeeze bottle upside down and slowly squirt in the developer until the level is at 100. I need 600 mls, so it's 12+588. As soon as you stop squeezing the bottle, the flow stops, no mess. The little graduate is dumped into the big one, rinsed out a few times with water, which is added to the big one, and then it's filled to 600 mls. The little thing on the cap of the bottle even snaps shut.
Best of all, it was free.

 

[bobwysiwyg]

They are not the same emulsions.

Just seemed odd that other developers indicated diffs of a minute when used with TMax 100 vs 400.

 

[NedL]

I think I have found an easier way to measure the stuff. I saved an empty dish-wash soap bottle, thoroughly rinsed it, and filled it with HC-110. I have a little graduate that goes to 100, and I fill it with water to 88. (I even put a little mark on it at 88). I then hold the squeeze bottle upside down and slowly squirt in the developer until the level is at 100. I need 600 mls, so it's 12+588. As soon as you stop squeezing the bottle, the flow stops, no mess. The little graduate is dumped into the big one, rinsed out a few times with water, which is added to the big one, and then it's filled to 600 mls. The little thing on the cap of the bottle even snaps shut.
Best of all, it was free.

This is very clever... great idea!

 

[JBrunner]

Just seemed odd that other developers indicated diffs of a minute when used with TMax 100 vs 400.

My apologies, I thought you were thinking it was the same emulsion at different speeds.

It is actually quite a good question in regard to developing regimens, so I hope to give a better answer, and address a little mantra of mine, in the context of thinking people need to realize that the key to success in the darkroom is being consistent enough to have verifiable cause and effect, and that that is so incredibly more important than following what some hippie from Utard advises as a time, as to be possibly one of the most under sung magic bullets yet devised.

So, the times are just my times, what I like for a particular emulsion, so they aren't meant to be holy writ, just a guide for people to start with. Also, im thinking a minute more or less in a nine minute development scheme doesn't amount to a difference most people can discerne.I probaby cooked one at nine and tried it for the other with good results and wrote it down. All of the times will in my experience yeild good usable negatives, but adjustments should be made by the individual to achieve their own version of negative nirvana. One might find 12 minutes more satisfactory, and that would be fine by me.

 

[JBrunner]

Jason, what minimum amount of developer per roll do you recommend? I found two recommendations one says 3ml another 6ml.

The dilution automatically works out to a minimum of around 5ml a roll. I have found this to work fine. I have used lesser dilutions to attempt to develop tonality in APHS sheet film, with questionable success.

 

[JBrunner]

JBrunner,
What do you like about HC110? I used to use it and found it nice as super diluted compensating developer and use to have a great method for pushing HP5 with semistand. I've since switched to X-Tol and pyrocat hd. I'm just curious to why you like it for roll film. I do really love working with concentrated developers.

Well, I started with HC110 in high school, but we did the whole nine yards, tanks, replenisher, the works. I didn't learn much about developing outside what the Great Yellow Father stipulated were the correct and not to be questioned procedures. The line of thought went something like this: "The big brains in Rochester have already figured this stuff out, it is up to you not to screw it up."

Later, when I set up my own darkroom and started large format I started both learning that you could experiment and started using staining developers, PMK, Pyrocat, Wd2D+ etc. Loved them, but I needed something a bit more convenient and economical for my roll film, and I didn't feel I needed stain for stuff I didn't contact print alt process, so, during the Rodinal wars I enlisted. Despite my attempt to join the church, I harbored misgivings about Rodinal. It was just a little to much for my idiom. I did like the ease of mixing it up. Having always liked HC110, I decided to devise an easy to use monotheistic mix from concentrate method similar to Rodinal. I didn't know about dilution E at the time, so I extrapolated from dilution H and after some experimenting came up with my times. When I wrote the original article I was surprised at how much interest there was and how many people were happy with their negs.

 

[JBrunner]

I think I have found an easier way to measure the stuff. I saved an empty dish-wash soap bottle, thoroughly rinsed it, and filled it with HC-110. I have a little graduate that goes to 100, and I fill it with water to 88. (I even put a little mark on it at 88). I then hold the squeeze bottle upside down and slowly squirt in the developer until the level is at 100. I need 600 mls, so it's 12+588. As soon as you stop squeezing the bottle, the flow stops, no mess. The little graduate is dumped into the big one, rinsed out a few times with water, which is added to the big one, and then it's filled to 600 mls. The little thing on the cap of the bottle even snaps shut.
Best of all, it was free.

That's awesome. Ill have to remember to label it so I don't wind up wondering why it won't suds.

 

[bobwysiwyg]

My apologies, I thought you were thinking it was the same emulsion at different speeds.

It is actually quite a good question in regard to developing regimens, so I hope to give a better answer, and address a little mantra of mine, in the context of thinking people need to realize that the key to success in the darkroom is being consistent enough to have verifiable cause and effect, and that that is so incredibly more important than following what some hippie from Utard advises as a time, as to be possibly one of the most under sung magic bullets yet devised.

So, the times are just my times, what I like for a particular emulsion, so they aren't meant to be holy writ, just a guide for people to start with. Also, im thinking a minute more or less in a nine minute development scheme doesn't amount to a difference most people can discerne.I probaby cooked one at nine and tried it for the other with good results and wrote it down. All of the times will in my experience yeild good usable negatives, but adjustments should be made by the individual to achieve their own version of negative nirvana. One might find 12 minutes more satisfactory, and that would be fine by me.

Thanks for the follow up. Having not used this developer yet, but have been wanting to try it, the plan was to do some testing with the times. Thanks again.

 

[MattKing]

I think I have found an easier way to measure the stuff. I saved an empty dish-wash soap bottle, thoroughly rinsed it, and filled it with HC-110. I have a little graduate that goes to 100, and I fill it with water to 88. (I even put a little mark on it at 88). I then hold the squeeze bottle upside down and slowly squirt in the developer until the level is at 100. I need 600 mls, so it's 12+588. As soon as you stop squeezing the bottle, the flow stops, no mess. The little graduate is dumped into the big one, rinsed out a few times with water, which is added to the big one, and then it's filled to 600 mls. The little thing on the cap of the bottle even snaps shut.
Best of all, it was free.

I do almost the same with HC-110 replenisher solution, and before that with the HC-110 concentrate itself.

The differences are:

1) I use a 45ml Paterson Graduate instead of the 100ml one; and
2) I bought a new travel bottle with a similar dropper style cap, so I didn't have to be as concerned about the efficacy of my rinsing regime.

And I base my calculations of volume on 6 ml concentrate per roll of film. That number comes from a straight extrapolation of Kodak's capacity recommendations for HC-110, so it most likely contains a healthy margin for safety.

Of course, when you use HC-110 in a replenishment regime, there is no down side to increasing the amount of developer you use each time, as all but a small fraction of that developer just goes back into the bottle afterwards.

 

[Photo-gear]

A little home-made video clip I shot to show how to prepare an HC-110 dilution.
Based from the Covington website.
http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110

[video=youtube;h8-eSyj0ywA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8-eSyj0ywA&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[Jeff Kubach]

Thanks for the info! I'm going to use HC-110 more often.

Jeff

 

[okto]

I'm really not clear what problem you're trying to solve. Making a 1:49 dilution doesn't make anything easier than a 1:31 or 1:63 or 1:119 dilution, as far as I can tell?

 

[StoneNYC]

I'm really not clear what problem you're trying to solve. Making a 1:49 dilution doesn't make anything easier than a 1:31 or 1:63 or 1:119 dilution, as far as I can tell?

Sure it does, it makes the math a heck of a lot easier, I use HC110 Dilution S (for Stone) of 1:25 because 1:31 gives me a headache trying to calculate the increases for each film. Maybe I'm a simpleton, but 1:50/1:25/1:100 are much easier to calculate.


~Stone | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Gerald C Koch]

I also use HC-110 at 1+49 which works superbly with the metric system. For my SS tank which holds 250 ml I use 5 ml of concentrate. As a plus I also use Rodinal at the same dilution. Makes life a lot simpler.

I use a 10 ml measuring cylinder and the viscosity of the concentrate doesn't bother me. As far as baby medicine syringes are concerned they are not very accurate and should be checked.

 

[adelorenzo]

I use a 10 ml baby syringe, fill it to the line and squirt it into enough water to hit the 500 ml line on the measuring cup. Easy peasy 1+49.

Is it a huge difference from 1+63? Probably not but easier to make. More importantly you skip the intermediate working dilution recommended by Kodak.