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These days there is a lot of stuff on the market. Most of which is passable as good. I intend to start out as a B&W darkroom, what would you recommend as your beginner Developer, Stop Bath, and Fixer? Any suggestions, comments, or advice is highly welcome and appriciated from everyone and anyone.

Nicole

As you said, most chemicals will give good results, the differances between differant developers for instance is pretty subtle (with a few exceptions of more specialty developers, and not always then), and the differance between stop and fixers is not evident in the final product at all. A good starting developer would be something like kodak D-76, or ID-11 from ilford (ID-11 and D-76 are for most practical purposes identical), those are both mixed from powder. For a liquid concentraite developer ilford's DD-X is great, there are cerntainly many others. Any stop bath will do if you're using it one shot, if you're re using it an indicator stop bath will change color when it's exausted, I've only had experience with kodak version, but there are cerntainly others. It is also possible to use a water bath instead of a stop bath, I do for all my film processing, but still use an acid stop when printing. I'd recomend a rapid fixer, ilford hypam is great, kodak also makes a good one. With kodak rapid fixer (IIRC, it's been a while) you get a seperate hardener package, I wouldn't use it; modern films are hardened at manuracture, and papers fixed in hardening fixer don't tone as well, and I've never had a problem with soft paper emulsions scracthing (even if they did, just make another print). What I'd recomend is picking one film (or maybe two, a fast and slow) and one developer and sticking to it for a while (a year or more) until you know it well; how varying exposure and development effect things, what differant lighing will do with that combo, etc. Once you're confident with your materials, then you'll be able to experiment and see the sublties of differant films and developers. Hope that helps

)

Peter

Peter has given you a great deal of information for chemicals with film. For printing, i would suggest LPD as it has a long tray life. However, Dektol is an old stand by. You will need stop bath for printing unless you use TF-4 fixer which needs a running water stop.

Keep it simple, one film, one paper with one developer for each. As Peter indicates it will be awhile before you will see the sutle differences between film/develper combos and paper/developers. Take your time and learn good technique with your tools before moving on to other combinations.
You might conisder using RC paper as your beginning paper. THe development times and wash times are shorter, but the look is different than fiber.

I personally like the Kodak liquid developers and fixer. You can mix up what you need instead of the whole package of stuff, so it is always fresh with no waste and best of all no chemical dust while you are mixing. For film I recommend the Kodak TMAX developer, for paper the Kodak Polymax developer and Kokdak Polymax fixer for both prints and negs, you just dilute it a little differently. They come in small bottles of concentrate and you just measure it out, add the water and you are set. Don't need to have gallon jugs of chems laying around getting weaker as each day goes by. After you process your film or paper, just spill the developer out, you can quickly mix up a batch the next time in a few seconds.

As far as stop goes, just about any stop bath will work. if you dont mind the smell, an acetic acid type like Kodak Indicator Stop is fine, just don't wait for it to turn purple before replacing it. Replace it a little sooner. If the smell bothers you, there are various citric acid stop baths out there that have no odor. In a pinch, you can always use white vinegar. I used to use it when I was a kid and it worked fine. Once I couldnt find the white vinegar so I used my mom's red vinegar as a stop bath, all my prints smelled like an Italian deli ;=]

Have fun and post some images when you get them processed.

Phil

I've just started developing my own black and white and here is what I use - and found to be really simple:

- Kodak D76 in either stock, or 1:1 dilution
- Ilford Rapid Fixer in 1:4 solution
- Ilford RidFix Wash Additive in 1:4 solution

I do all this in a Patterson tank, where you use 300ml per roll.

The D76 comes in powder form, but is really simple to mix. Just make sure it's in an airtight container - I use 4 x 1 litre plastic bottles. At 1:1, with 300ml per roll, I expect to get at least 25 rolls worth.

I personally wish I'd started with Diafine. It's a two-bath developer and tempurature/processing time are not crucial. Also, it takes a LONG time to exhaust it. Thus, a one quart supply will last many, many rolls. Furthermore, the stop bath is a simple water rinse, so you don't have to purchase stop bath.

For fixer, I use standard Kodak Fixer. Takes a while, but it's always given me consistent results.

If you want a standard, single-bath developer, I like HC-110 for 2/3 recommended time followed by a bath of two heaping teaspoons of sodium metaborate diluted in 1L water.

For stop bath, Sprint has a wonderful indicator stop bath that's buffered so you don't have to worry about pinholes.

I just picked up darkroom work again. Being not very familiar with it, I use only 1 film, 1 developer, 1 fixer:

Film is Kodak Tri-X.

Developer Ilford ID-11, 1+1 dilution. I may have to switch to Kodak D76 however.

Stop bath is plain water.

Fix is Agfa Agefix, 1+5 dilution.

To develop prints I use Agfa Neutol WA, stop bath is water again, fix is Agfa Agefix again.

I print on Ilford FB multigrade paper.

So far I have consistent results, so I think TriX in ID11 must be quite easy.

Koen

I like Kodak HC-110 diluted 1-39 for TMax 100 film, with about any stop bath and fixer, though I use Ilford currently. I will continue to use Ilford paper and chemicals as long as they make them. I also recommend using one film, one developer, and get used to them. Also, use only one camera. Then branch out. Standardize your contact printing with your enlarger, height, f-stop, and time, and you can better judge your work before you print it.

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