Busy day checking some old Ilford HP5 plus, which has been in the freezer for at least 10 years.
Used a ‘two bath’ development formula from The Film developing Cookbook – Anchell/Troop:
The negative was scanned and inverted in P/S then a selenium brown tone added – nearest colour I can get to the Kodak brown I use in the darkroom. Other than that, not much else done with the image. As I have about 20 6×6 rolls, I can now quite confidently use it with just a slight reduction in my normal speed of ISO 320.
Leitz formula:-
To make 1 litre.
Bath A.
Metol 5 grams.
Sodium Sulphite anhydrous 100 grams.
Bath B.
Sodium Carbonate anhydrous 15 grams.
Sodium Sulphite anhydrous 6 grams,
Each bath made by adding chemicals into 2/3 of the water in the order written (add pinch of the Sodium Sulphite with Metol because on its own it will not easily dissolve) top up, making 1 litre. Store in brown litre bottles and as long as bath A is not contaminated with B, both should do at least 15 35/6×6 films.
Do not ‘pre-soak’ film before development; other than that, it is 3 to 4 mins @ 20deg.C with constant agitation (adjust for desired density) in A. Drain but don’t rinse, add bath B and again agitate as before, drain, stop, fix & wash……… Print or scan – whichever is your preferred method.
I have some base fog (age of film most likely) which is no real problem, but I may try adding Potassium Bromide (10ml of 10% solution) to bath A.
As you can see the negative has a good range and scanned with the minimum of correction. Which is why I used the two bath method, it is almost fool-proof in that it uses the same time for most films and speeds.
All this can be done with the minimum of equipment: no excuse if anyone wanted to try film and thought they couldn’t because they do not have the necessary darkroom & enlarger.
David A Lockwood 
Great read David….Ahhh the good ole days of darkroom chemistry. And I really like yer image.
Thanks,
The one good thing about the two bath is it’s quick and easy; also very forgiving of film, time & temperature – all good characteristics in this case 🙂
David.
Nice work. It’s been a long time now, since I developed and printed with chemicals. I don’t know if I’d go back to it now. But I still have a few cameras I really loved… and still look at, once in a while… with longing.
Shimon, you must use them ! it’s therapeutic if nothing else and as long as you have a flat-bed scanner with film attachment, no excuse 🙂
David.
Excellent results. I used a method similar to this years ago and it worked very well for me. Though I still have a functional darkroom, I haven’t used it since I purchased a digital camera 5 years ago. I loved printing but not developing negatives very much, although it was nice to have alone time and listen to good music. Good luck with the other 19 rolls.
Many thanks,
19 rolls – humm that was just the oldest ! 😉
It gets me away from the computer……
David.