FX-55 Film Developer
Geoffrey Crawley’s FX-55 film developer. A general purpose fine grain film developer with great sharpness.
Recipe
This film developer is a bit special in that a concentrate of alkalies is prepared that keeps a long time. The working solution is mixed from this concentrate together with a few dry chemicals with worse keeping properties. The working solution keeps for 36 hours.
Mix chemicals in the listed order.
Part A (concentrate)
| Chemical | Amount |
|---|---|
| Distilled water | 750 ml |
| Potassium carbonate | 20 g |
| Sodium bicarbonate | 1.5 g |
| Sodium sulfite (anhydrous) | 25 g |
| Sodium metabisulfite | 12 g |
| Distilled water to make | 1000 ml |
Part B (dry chemicals)
| Chemical | Amount |
|---|---|
| Sodium L-ascorbate | 1.3 g |
| Phenidone1 | 0.1 g |
Usage
Dilute part A 1+9 with water to make 1000 ml then add Part B. Starting development times:
| Film | EI | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Fuji Acros | 80 | 8:00 |
| Ilford FP4+ | 160 | 7:00 |
Footnotes:
1
Measuring small quantities of phenidone, see Phenidone Solution