The Darkroom Cookbook Forum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FX-55_(film_developer)



guys, is it real? I kept reading that fx-55 is proprietary & belongs to Paterson. but now it's on wiki??!

Bill Troop is the expert on FX formulas. If anyone would know it would be him.

I have started using it. It works well for me,. I wouldn't say it gives the speed increase it claims, although I get true box speed on Fuji Acros. For my printing I develop a lot less than the recommended time, I use 8 minutes for Fuji Acros 100 at 20C, although I use a condenser enlarger. You need a scale that measure milligrams to weigh out the tiny amount of phenidone needed as it is a one shot developer, it doesn't keep.



Regards, Simon.

I use a solution of Phenidone in ethylene alcohol, so the measuring is somewhat simplified & the error is managed. perhaps i'll try it soon. Thanks for the time provided, Simon!



Regarding fix, i believe adding NH4Cl would speed up your fix, but i doubt if it'd approach the speed of true rapid fix

Wouldn't it be a good idea to include FX-55 in the next edition of the book?

There are two known developers which Crawley formulated with ascorbate. One is FX-50, a proprietary formula, and the other is FX-55, a public formula. It's easy to confuse them. I will be able to print FX-50 with permission in the upcoming Film Developing Cookbook, which should be available sometime in late 2018. Although it is slightly inconvenient to have to measure out the phenidone and ascorbate each time, it means you don't have to worry about the developer suddenly failing. Fortumately, scales intended for measuring in the milligram range are now inexpensive. I can tell you now there are no great secrets in FX-50. I would say most users would be best served by mixing fresh either FX-55 or Xtol.

Thanks for the infos, Bill. Good luck with your work on the book, I'm looking forward to reading it!