Microphen film developer

Description

A phenidone/hydroquinone developer that adds roughly half a stop to a full stop of film speed without letting the grain go. The working tool for shooting in the dark and for push processing.

What it is for

Phenidone paired with hydroquinone is superadditive, and it develops thinly exposed areas far more readily — the shadows an ordinary developer leaves empty. In practice ISO 400 film can be shot at 800 and still have shadows rather than a grey hole. The price is a small increase in grain over D-76, and a much smaller one than simply extending the time in an ordinary developer would cost.

Stock or diluted

At stock strength the speed gain is greatest and the solution can be replenished. At 1+1 and 1+3 it is sharper and one-shot, but the speed gain is smaller. For a two-stop push or more, use it at stock.

Questions and answers

Is this the same as just developing for longer?

No. Longer development raises contrast and highlight density but does not recover shadows — there is no information there to recover. Microphen develops the weak latent image itself, so the shadows appear.

Powder or ready-mixed?

Chemically identical. The powder is cheaper and more compact; the solution saves you dissolving and filtering it.