"Keith Tapscott."
wrote in message
...

Has anyone tried this developer?

http://tinyurl.com/kqegre




--
Keith Tapscott.

I have not tried it.
I did a little searching around. The box suggests its
D-76d, which is the buffered form of D-76. Kodak's packaged
D-76 is of this type. The buffered formula was devised in
1929, a couple of years after the release of the original
D-76 formula, because it was found that the original slowly
increased in activity causing a significant increase in the
contrast obtained after a given developing time. Kodak labs
found that the pH of the solution increased slowly with time
and that using a borax-boric acid buffer system would
control it. There is an MSDS for the Foma product at the
Freestyle site but its wrong listing sodium thiosulfate
(hypo) as one of the ingredients. Of course, they mean
sodium sulfite. The only other ingredients listed are metol
and hydroquinone so its incomplete in any case.
Assuming they followed the published formula for D-76d
it should be about equivalent. However, Kodak includes other
stuff in their packaged chemistry. For instance, D-76 comes
in a single bag where the Foma product comes in two parts.
This is because the metol normally must be dissolved before
the sulfite or it becomes very difficult to get into
solution. However, Kodak does something or includes
something so that everything can be mixed at once. Also,
Kodak packaged developers generally contain a sequestering
agent for magnesium and calcium salts in the water. Of
course, there is a big difference in price between the two
and the Foma developer is probably quite satisfactory.
For those who are interested here are the formulas for
the two variations of D-76. Note that virtually every
manufacturer of film or photo chemicals had some variation.

Kodak D-76 (original 1927 formula)
Water (at about 125F or 52C) 750.0 ml
Metol 2.0 grams
Sodium Sulfite, desiccated 100.0 grams
Hydroquinone 5.0 grams
Borax, granular 2.0 grams
Water to make 1.0 liter

Dissolve chemicals in order given.

Kodak D-76d (1929 buffered formula)
Water (at about 125F or 52C) 750.0 ml
Metol 2.0 grams
Sodium Sulfite, desiccated 100.0 grams
Hydroquinone 5.0 grams
Borax, granular 8.0 grams
Boric acid, crystalline 8.0 grams
Water to make 1.0 liter

Do not use powdered Boric acid, it dissolves only with
difficulty.
Mix chemicals in order given.

The two formulas have about the same activity when
freshly mixed but the buffered version is stable where the
original is not.



--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA