[Leica] Anyone out there load cassettes from bulk film?

[jsmith342 at cox.net (Jeffery Smith)]

It's a bit fussy but worth the fuss.

Good points:
Good shelf life, and extremely economical (only 5-10 ml per roll)
Mutes the grain by staining the negative in the areas of silver reduction.
Works *beautifully* with some films like Ilford FP4, Foma Creative 200
Most films develop in about 12 minutes, so you can mix films in the same
tank.
Seems to work very well with those inexpensive slavic films having old
formulas.


Fussy points:
A bit toxic, but nothing to panic about. By the time you are at the working
solution, it is really dilute. It does go through skin (as most phenols do),
but keep in mind that Chloroseptic mouth wash is dilute phenol, and you are
spraying that stuff down your throat. If you mix your own from stock
chemicals, you have to be careful.
You have to invert your tank every 15 seconds to prevent streaking.
Requires non-acidic fixer (Photographer's Formulary Archival Fix) that takes
about 20 minutes to dissolve in distilled water (but it rinses out faster
than other fixers)
The routine is really strange...
        Develop for 12 minutes inverting the tank every 15 seconds
        Pour the used developer into a mason jar
        Rinse briefly
        Fix for about 5 minutes
        Pour the used developer back into the tank without rinsing(!)
        Develop for a few more minutes, inverting every 30 seconds
        Rinse for about 10 minutes
The resulting film should be exorcist vomit green

Is it worth it? Yes, if you want the nostalgic, rich grays that you saw in
photos from the 1940's and 1950's. And the fussiness is worth it in that the
results are very repeatable. I haven't used Plus X with PMK, but think that
FP4+ is probably the best film for it, hands down. Some films don't stain at
all with it (like Pan F), but PMK develops AND stains, so even the
non-staining films develop normally.

I suggest that you order the PMK Pyro Kit from Photographer's Formulary (it
comes with the PMK Pyro book by Gordon Hutchings...I think the man devoted
his life to PMK Pyro). Also get the archival, non-acidic fixer (TF-4). Acid
washes out the stain, as does extended rinsing. But the stain does intensify
during a short rinse cycle. Also, go to the local drug store and buy a
medicine syringe. That is the easiest way to measure out 5-10 ml of each of
the two developer solutions. I use glass mason jars for all solutions.
Getting the developer to the proper temperature usually requires about 3
minutes in a mason jar in the freezer.

I hope this hasn't scared you off. The results are worth it, and are even
better on paper than on computer screens. I would be interested to see how
Plus X fares with it. If you're willing to wade through my blog, I have some
reviews of different films with PMK Pyro. 

http://400tx.blogspot.com/


Jeffery Smith
New Orleans, LA
http://www.400tx.com




-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+jsmith342=cox.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+jsmith342=cox.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of David
Rodgers
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 9:40 AM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: RE: [Leica] Anyone out there load cassettes from bulk film?


Jeffery,

Sorry. This is slightly off topic to this thread. But someone on the LUG
posted about PMK Pyro a while back. Was that you, and if so what was your
experience with the stuff in terms of ease of developing and results? 

I'm using TMAX 100 and 400 but just picked up a brick of Plus-X. I'm
thinking of trying PMK with Plus-X. 

TIA
Dave 


-----Original Message-----
From: Jeffery Smith [mailto:jsmith342@cox.net] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 9:33 AM
To: 'Leica Users Group'
Subject: RE: [Leica] Anyone out there load cassettes from bulk film?

As I recall, I tried masking tape (which, of course, is designed to come off
easily...duh). I'm not trying to save money either...I was going to try some
Eastman Double X film (ISO 200-250) which comes only in remnants since it is
a cine film. But it is supposed to be similar to Super XX. I have read that
Bergger 200 is also similar to Super XX. If that is the case, I'd rather go
with Bergger 200 and not fiddle with reloading. Anyone out there used both
films and can comment?

Jeffery Smith
New Orleans, LA
http://www.400tx.com
http://400tx.blogspot.com/




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