[Alex645]

Borax is chemically equivalent to sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate. Officially it's Na₂[B₄O₅(OH)₄]·8H₂O (aka Sodium tetraborate decahydrate).

I am not a chemist but I do not believe that is equivalent to the Bis(4-hydroxy-N-methylanilinium) sulphate listed in Kodak's MSDS sheets for D-76.

Is your borax replacement a home brew?

[pres589]

I got excited about five gallons of Clayton F76+ for $90 from Freestyle until I found out it would cost an additional $100 to get it shipped to where I live now. That's about 380 rolls of film worth of developer. Six or seven year's worth of shooting!

[tuco]

I got excited about five gallons of Clayton F76+ for $90 from Freestyle until I found out it would cost an additional $100 to get it shipped to where I live now. That's about 380 rolls of film worth of developer. Six or seven year's worth of shooting!

Wow that's a lot. What's the shelf life once opened?

[tuco]

... PMK developers stain negatives and the degree of stain is influenced by density. So when images are scanned the stain acts like a contrast mask and helps control the dynamic range of the resulting scan.

The PMK Pyro stain does more than that. Since the negative now has color stain, you can use filters on the enlarger to effectively "burn" and "dodge" shadows and highlights with variable contrast paper.

[pres589]

Wow that's a lot. What's the shelf life once opened?

That's a good question. I bought a gallon of the stuff about six or seven months ago and used some of it already. We'll find out I guess.

EDIT: Did research on this last night and it doesn't seem like it'd make it past a year, with six months being the window where breakdown isn't a question, but after that it starts to be something to watch for. I'll probably have to run a test roll through what I've got when I finally get back to it. If it's expired I'll go back to buying it by the quart and then maybe grab a bottle of HC-110 as well.

[titrisol]

Those complicated names are usually the developing agents....
Bis(4-hydroxy-N-methylanilinium) sulphate is METOL
Benzene-1,4-diol is HYDROQUINONE
(1-phenyl-3-pyrazolidinone is PHENIDONE

Kodak used Borax as buffer agent in the original D76 as you well mention it was Borax decahydrate
-- ID-11 D76 Variants --

Borax is chemically equivalent to sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate. Officially it's Na₂[B₄O₅(OH)₄]·8H₂O (aka Sodium tetraborate decahydrate).

I am not a chemist but I do not believe that is equivalent to the Bis(4-hydroxy-N-methylanilinium) sulphate listed in Kodak's MSDS sheets for D-76.

Is your borax replacement a home brew?

[Digitalis]

you can use filters on the enlarger to effectively "burn" and "dodge" shadows and highlights with variable contrast paper.

A handy trick indeed, however the OP here has expressed a desire to produce negatives suitable for scanning. The equipment needed for optical printing takes up a lot of space, and demands a physical environment [light tight dark room & film safe lights] that only hardcore enthusiasts* and professionals are willing to attempt these days.

* ..foolhardy amateurs..

---------- Post added 2019-12-19 at 01:33 AM ----------

One thought I have had regarding increasing the longevity of developing concentrates is the possibility of crystallizing the solution in order to preserve it. Depending on environmental factors it could be quite easy to get it to take on a crystal form and later on, re-hydrate it to make the required developing solution. The biggest problem I can see with this approach is the exposure to atmospheric oxygen causing depletion of the developer and also the development of undesirable polymorphs* that could change the properties of the developer.

I am not a chemist but I do not believe that is equivalent to the Bis(4-hydroxy-N-methylanilinium) sulphate listed in Kodak's MSDS sheets for D-76.

Just for reference Sodium tetraborate decahydrate [Na2B4O7] - is exclusively referred to as borax, which appears in many published recipes for D-76**.


*certain substances when crystallized can have more than one crystals form, sometimes the chemical and physical properties of the Alpha crystal form and the Beta form can be markedly different. These changes in crystal structure can affect a number of things such as the compounds solubility in water.

** Though to make the issue murkier, there are numerous variants of the classic D-76 recipe.

---

Last edited by Digitalis; 12-18-2019 at 08:05 AM.

[tuco]

A handy trick indeed, however the OP here has expressed a desire to produce negatives suitable for scanning. The equipment needed for optical printing takes up a lot of space, and demands a physical environment [light tight dark room & film safe lights] that only hardcore enthusiasts* and professionals are willing to attempt these days.

Gordon Hutchings in his, The Book of Pyro tells all about it. I've been using PMK Pyro since around 1995. If you want to inkjet print 24-inch and wider, I'd say you need some space too for that large of a printer, stand, big computer monitor and all.

[titrisol]

As long as you don;t call us luddite elitists

* ..foolhardy amateurs..[COLOR=Silver]
.

[tuco]

Ansel Adams has a lot of developer formulas plus some fixers, intensifiers, reducers and a hardener in his book, The Negative, just for reference. But I'm sure that's all a easy mouse-click to find that info too. But you also get a good discussion on the zone system and densitometry that you need know if you're going to get serious about establishing a development time and getting the most from developing your negatives for high and low contrast scenes.

[titrisol]

The earliest version of D76 I have a reference for D76 comes form "Elementary Photographic Chemistry", published by Kodak in 1934 as per the attached scan
ELON = Metol

In the same book there is DK76 which replaces Borax with Kodalk in the same proportion

Ansel Adams has a lot of developer formulas plus some fixers, intensifiers, reducers and a hardener in his book, The Negative, just for reference. But I'm sure that's all a easy mouse-click to find that info too. But you also get a good discussion on the zone system and densitometry that you need know if you're going to get serious about establishing a development time and getting the most from developing your negatives for high and low contrast scenes.

[Digitalis]

As long as you don;t call us luddite elitists

I use a different term for people like that, forum rules prevent me from using it.

[stevebrot]

As long as you don;t call us luddite elitists

Nattering nabobs of negatives?


Steve