You're right about measuring small quantities but I guess a small laboratory scale would help there. I've found that the temperature of the make-up water is not critical unless you don't want to spend forever trying to get the last solids to dissolve! To my knowledge I've never had a problem with uneven distribution of ingredients, but I have always tended to pour it all into the bowl of a scale, stir it up to remove any lumps which might have formed in the packet, then taken off what is not required for the quantity I'm about to mix up. The con, of course, is also that it's generally more expensive to buy smaller quantities - but that might be cheaper after all than throwing away a portion of it after time!
John Coyle Brisbane, Australia ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 3:56 PM Subject: Re: B&W developer quandry > > Edwin, have you thought about a powder developer such as Microdol? You can > > then make up just as much as you need to cope with the number of films you > > have to develop at any given time. I can't offer any recent experience of > > this with T-max, but I have used it in the past with HP4 and 5 when I could > > only get new supplies for the darkroom every six months or so, and it keeps > > for a very long time. Worth a look perhaps? > > > > John Coyle > > Brisbane, Australia > > NOT microdol (tried it, didn't like it) but perhaps the concept has merit. > > You'd have to do some clever measuring since the powdered developers are > not meant to be mixed in small batches. You'd need a one-part developer > (which allows D76 but not ID-11plus). The main problem with powders is > that most of them want to be mixed hot. There might also be a problem > with uneven distribution of ingredients in the powder?? > > DJE > > >
