Collin B. wrote: > My darkroom often gets down to 64 deg. F. > Development charts don't cover that range. > Anyone know of info that covers wider ranges > than the published specs, or should I just > take the time to warm up the soup?
You can use a water bath for film. In the winter, make the water bath the same temp as the developing temp. In summer, it needs to be two degrees cooler to keep the developer at the developing temperature. I develop like so: put all chemicals in the water bath. Pre-rinse the film with tempered water (I dip it right out of the water bath). When the developer is exactly at the development temp, pour it in the tank. Between agitations, stand the tank in the water bath. At end of development, I pour the developer out into a plastic container in the sink and measure its temperature again. If it has drifted during the development process, I make slight modifications to the water bath temperature accordingly. If you can't get the tap to run at the development temperature for washing, simply use tempered water for four or five tank changes, with agitation. Works just fine. Hope this helps, --Mike P.S. I develop film in ambient temperatures from 55F to 100F. Never a problem, except that in extreme heat it's sometimes hard to get the water bath down to 68F. For that, I keep a few gallon bottles of water in the refrigerator. - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
