[Leica] PMK Developer

[chris at chriscrawfordphoto.com (Chris Crawford)]

I just bought and tried Gordon Hutchings' PMK Pyro developer. Pyro is short
for Pyrogallol, a developing agent that was popular in the 19th century and
was used by some fine art photographers in the early 20th century, such as
Edward Weston. Pyro developers are staining developers, meaning that in
addition to developing the silver, they also stain the image with a
transparent stain that is proportional to the silver image, so the final
image is composed partly of this stain and partly of developed silver. Its
supposed to give more subtle tonal gradations, especially in light tones,
compared to normal developers.

PMK is a modern Pyro developer, made to work well with modern films. Gordon
Hutchings, the formulator of PMK has published the formula, but you can also
buy it premixed from Photographers Formulary. Freestyle and B&H both sell
the Formulary product, which is how I got mine.

Pyro is toxic, so I would recommend buying the liquid kit, rather than
mixing it yourself or buying the powdered version of the kit (the powder can
be inhaled, making it much more dangerous than liquids). You have to wear
nitrile chemical gloves to use this, it absorbs through skin and is highly
toxic. Is it worth it?

Several years ago, when I lived in New Mexico, I tried it with Efke and Foma
films and got great results but didn't have the chance to fine tune it
before I moved back to Indiana. The bottles got misplaced, and I later
realized I had left them behind by mistake, and I never got around to
getting more. I'd been thinking about it for a while and finally decided to
order a new kit, which I intended to try with Arista Premim 400 film, which
is the Tri-X that Freestyle sells for $2 a roll.

Well, here's the first test pics on the Arista Premium/Tri-X film. I am very
pleased with the tonality!

http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com/technical/images/examples/trix-pmk1.jpg
This is my father helping me change a broken wheel bearing on my car. Shot
with a Nikon F3 and 50mm f1.4 AF-Nikkor lens.


http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com/technical/images/examples/trix-pmk2.jpg
This is my son, shot with a Nikon F3 and 85mm f1.8 AF-Nikkor lens.


http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com/technical/images/examples/trix-pmk3.jpg
This is my dad's toolbox in his garage. Shot with a Nikon F3 and 50mm f1.4
AF-Nikkor lens.


This developer is a pain to use. It is very toxic, so nitrile gloves are
required, even developing roll film in tanks (some always seems to leak on
my hands). You also have to agitate, a lot. First minute then every 15
seconds, I invert the tank twice, vigorously. This developer will streak and
give uneven developing if you use normal agitation or reduced agitation.
This is not for stand developing! Agitating a 30oz metal tank this much
gives you a workout!

It also requires the use of an Alkaline fixer, rather than the standard
acidic fixers we normally use. I used Formulary TF-4, an alkaline rapid
fixer made by Photographers Formulary. Its about the same price as the
Ilford Rapid Fixer I normally use, but like the PMK developer, it is a pain
to use. This stuff comes as a liquid concentrate, like most rapid fixes, but
the chemicals always settle out at the bottom of the bottle. Even if you
shake the bottle or mix it, it won't dissolve. You must mix the entire
bottle of concentrate into water (1+3 dilution) to make the working
strength, and it has to be mixed all at once. If you try to measure some of
the concentrate to make a smaller working batch, you probably won't get the
powder in the right amount in your final developer. When you mix it all at
once, the powder finally does dissolve in about a half hour, and it stays
dissolved! It smells different than normal fixers, like a hypo clearing
agent! It works well though, same fix times as with Ilford or Kodak rapid
fix. The alkaline fix is needed because acids remove some of the image stain
that Pyro developers are used for.

I have to scan some more examples, and I don't have a developing time
recommendation yet. I'm still deciding if i like the contrast I got with the
test time I used. I'll update once I test more.

The big question is, of course, IS IT WORTH THE HASSLE? Yes, I think it is.
I really like the results I got, a lot.