Processing Ilford HOTEC

[Arturo]

Hi all,

I have got hold of some old Ilford HOTEC red sensitive film. I was wondering what is the best way to develop/bleach it. The supplier suggested pyro proccess, but this seem to have some nasty chemicals involved, not well suited for my current "no lab" bathroom. I'd appreciate any hint on safer chemicals (or out of the box, like Kodak) to process this film.

Thanks.

[Martin]

Hi all,

I have got hold of some old Ilford HOTEC red sensitive film. I was wondering what is the best way to develop/bleach it. The supplier suggested pyro proccess, but this seem to have some nasty chemicals involved, not well suited for my current "no lab" bathroom. I'd appreciate any hint on safer chemicals (or out of the box, like Kodak) to process this film.

Thanks.

Under such circumstances I'd opt for an ascorbate developer and a ferric EDTA bleach.

[Ed Wesly]

Kodak D-8, D-11, D-19, if you can find any in a camera store, or Kodak Dektol, diluted with 2 parts developer and one part water (as opposed to the paper developing dilution of 2 parts H20 and 1 part developer) could work as the developer.

As far as bleaches go, nothing pre-packaged from a camera store will work. The Ferric EDTA recipes are probably the safest way to go.

Some of the old Ilford stock had something called BIPS (Built In Pre-Swell) to yield color-shifted results using develop-rehalogenating bleach processing schemes. So don’t be surprised if you get golds and greens with this stuff! I used to use a pyrogallol-based developer with PBQ bleach to keep the replay laser red reconstruction. Some people would was the BIPS out and dry before exposing. A dumb marketing move.

[John Sonley]

Arturo - I wonder if you are having success with your Ilford film - I found that I needed about 120mJ/cm -2 to get an OD of about 1.5 but when treated with 5% TEA the speed shot up