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AnalogFixerDarkroom chemistry for black-and-white film
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Section

Process control

Time, temperature, agitation, dilution and capacity: the variables that decide whether a roll processed this month matches one processed last month.

In this section

  • J-86 keeps two T-MAX 100 time rows under different product names

    Shows that Kodak J-86 December 2017 publishes two different development-time rows for T-MAX 100 under the labels “T-MAX 100 Professional” and “PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100” in the same T-MAX Developer and T-MAX RS tables, that those rows disagree at overlapping temperatures, and that F-4016’s matching T-MAX Developer and T-MAX RS cells for current PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 Film agree only with the PROFESSIONAL-named rows — so a quoted “J-86 T-MAX 100 time” has to name which product-line label the row carries.

  • Two XTOL 1:1 rotary times in Kodak F-4016

    Shows that Kodak publication F-4016 for T-MAX 100 prints matching roll and sheet times across every shared rotary EI developer row except XTOL 1:1, where three temperatures differ the same way in the June 2018 sheet, the February 2016 sheet, and an October 2007 third-party mirror, so a quoted XTOL 1:1 rotary time is usable only with format and revision attached.

  • ED-BWF puts T-MAX times at 75°F beside 68°F developers

    Shows that Kodak ED-BWF March 2023 prints small-tank and tray summary tables whose T-MAX / T-MAX RS columns sit under 24°C (75°F) while XTOL, D-76 and HC-110 sit under 20°C (68°F); the T-MAX 100 and T-MAX 400 cells match F-4016 and F-4043 at the temperatures those headers assign, but the TRI-X HC-110 cells do not match F-4017 at 68°F, so the summary cannot be read as one temperature across the row or as a substitute for F-4017 on HC-110.

  • Film sheets repeat 5–7 cycles; J-109 uses 2–5 subsequent

    Shows that Kodak’s T-MAX and TRI-X film sheets examined here, and T-MAX Developer J-86, instruct small-tank workers to repeat the initial 5–7 inversion cycles every 30 seconds, while XTOL publication J-109 bases its small-tank times on subsequent agitation of 2–5 cycles in that same interval — and F-4016 still points to J-109 for detailed XTOL instructions without reconciling the subsequent-agitation conflict.

  • Kodak’s film wash is 20–30 or 5 by sheet

    Shows that Kodak’s film and process sheets examined here publish three film-wash framings: T-MAX F-4016 and F-4043 print only a 20–30 minute plain running-water wash and name Hypo Clearing Agent to save time and water without stating a shortened wash duration; TRI-X F-4017 and AJ-3 explicitly fork 20–30 minutes without Hypo Clearing Agent versus 5 minutes after it; and developer/summary sheets J-109, J-86 and ED-BWF print only the Hypo Clearing Agent then 5-minute wash path in their final-steps tables.

  • Kodak’s PHOTO-FLO step is 30 seconds or 30 seconds to 1 minute

    Shows that Kodak XTOL J-109 publishes a PHOTO-FLO Solution time of 30 seconds to 1 minute in its final-steps table, while AJ-3, J-86, ED-BWF and TRI-X F-4017 publish a fixed 30-second wetting or final-rinse step, and T-MAX F-4016 / F-4043 name PHOTO-FLO after washing without printing a time.

  • Capacity labels cannot rank rapid fixers

    Converts Kodak’s pack-in film capacity of 120 rolls per US gallon to approximately 31.7 rolls per litre on the exact US-gallon basis, sets that figure beside Ilford’s published 24 rolls per litre at 1+4 from the July 2010 Rapid Fixer sheet, and shows that the resulting ~1.32 ratio is a difference between label numbers under mismatched documented processes — not evidence that one product is more efficient — because the sheets differ in working-bath composition, dilution framing, temperature and time statements and replenishment figures, and neither document bridges throughput to silver loading.

  • F-4016 leaves T-MAX 100’s small-tank XTOL 1:1 cell blank at 72°F

    Shows that Kodak F-4016 for T-MAX 100 prints a small-tank XTOL 1:1 row with times at 65, 68, 70 and 75°F but an unpublished em dash at 72°F (22°C) in the June 2018, February 2016 and October 2007 sheets, while the same F-4016 sheet fills 72°F for tray and rotary XTOL 1:1, sister sheet F-4043 fills the matching small-tank cell for T-MAX 400, and developer sheet J-109 omits a 72°F small-tank column entirely — so a quoted 72°F small-tank XTOL 1:1 time for T-MAX 100 cannot come from these Kodak tables.

  • J-109’s short-time floor is 4 or 5 minutes by table

    Shows that Kodak XTOL publication J-109 sets a method-dependent short-development uniformity floor—5 minutes on small-tank Table 1, 4 minutes on rotary, large-tank, tray and sheet Tables 2–8—while F-4016’s rotary tables (which include XTOL rows and point to J-109 for detailed XTOL instructions) and ED-BWF apply a flat 5-minute floor, so a cited “times shorter than N minutes” warning has to name which publication and which J-109 table.

  • Kodak XTOL “adjusted” 15% makes the total increase 32.25%

    Shows that Kodak J-109’s full-strength unreplenished XTOL time-compensation ladder applies the second 15% increase to the already adjusted time, so the total increase becomes +32.25% (1.3225× normal, not +30%), and records that F-4016 June 2018 defers to J-109 for detailed XTOL instructions while F-4043 February 2016 contains neither the ladder nor a J-109 pointer.

  • T-MAX exhausts fixer faster — no capacity cut in these Kodak sheets

    Sets Kodak F-4016 for T-MAX 100 (June 2018), Kodak ED-BWF (March 2023), and the retailer-hosted Kodak Rapid Fixer pack-in (code 20370811, © Kodak 2015) in one source matrix that separates the qualitative faster-exhaustion warning, the longer T-MAX fixing time, and the generic 120-roll capacity / 10 mL-per-roll replenishment figures, and records that these sources supplies no T-MAX-specific numerical capacity or replenishment adjustment.