Spectrum 1

A

B

 This is my developer of choice which meets several criteria including long shelf life, outstanding sharpness, low cost, smooth tonality and last but not least, ease of use. A tall order which has not been achieved to my satisfaction in a proprietary stock developer. After looking at several developers and alkali combinations, I decided to try formulating a variation of an old Rodinal formula that I had found in a Focal Encyclopedia of Photography. Rodinal has always had a certain amount of appeal, due in large part to it's use of a singular developing agent, p-aminophenol. When diluted to 1:75 or 1:100 it gives excellant sharpness, moderate granularity and reasonable film speed.

  So how can a good thing be improved?

  Well, first by splitting the developer from the alkali. This will greatly enhance its shelf life as well as minimizing the necessity for a preservative. And like gas in your car you aren't using it all, all of the time so why should you allow the unnecessary oxidation of your developer?

  Secondly, a good deal of economy can be had by utilizing a very high dilution. I haven't done the math but I doubt that this formula will cost more than .05 cents per liter of working strength solution which can be a blessing for the large format photographer. I won't get into the technicalities, but I must mention that dilute developement has many other redeeming qualities, such as reducing the risk of uneven developement, airbells and the frustrations involved with some of todays high tech films such as highlight block and development time variations.

  Also a slight but effective film speed increase is realized as the developer keeps working in the shadow area of a negative long after the highlights have used all of the developer in thier proximity. Two more benefits would be storage and ease of use. At its standard dilution 250 ml. will develop 500 rolls of 35mm film. That's economy ! As far as ease of use,just let your film stand develop for the most part. I agitate mine every 15-20 minutes This allowes me to do other things other than stand around inverting a tank every 30 seconds !

  All known developing agents are toxic if ingested in high enough quantity and this one is no exception. As you can see I use Red Devil Lye as an accelerator.A great deal of care must be taken with this chemical ! A little drain cleaner can go a long way in the wrong direction !

  Don't get me wrong, this isn't going to be everyones favorite soup. After all most people don't want to wait an hour or more to see thier film ! But I like it !