Japanese Developers

From Silvergrain Research

Japanese Film Developers

Published Formulae

Standard fine grain formulation

There are several published formulae similar to D-76 (as you expect). However, none of them as far as I have seen is identical to D-76.

	Konica SD-20	Fuji FD-122	Konica SD-28
Metol	1.5g	2.5g	2.0g
hydroquinone	3.0g	2.5g	5.0g
sodium sulfite (anhydrous)	100g	100g	100g
sodium metaborate	2.0g	2.0g	--
borax	--	--	8.0g
boric acid	--	--	8.0g
potassium bromide	0.5g	0.5g	0.4g
water to make	1 liter	1 liter	1 liter
target pH (at 25°C, ± 0.05)	(unpublished)	(unpublished)	(unpublished)

A few comments. Japanese (as well as AGFA's) fine grain formulae tend to employ bromide to restrain chemical fog , whereas D-76 results in manageable but slightly higher fog level.

One speculation. Japanese press photographers loved to dilute fresh D-76 with used D-76, just like people do with D-72 and paper development. It usually results in higher shadow contrast and finer grain. SD-20 might have attempted to get similar effect when it is fresh. SD-28 is a striking example where it provides stability of buffered D-76 (D-76d), slightly higher shadow contrast, and slightly finer grain.

Packaged developers by Fujifilm

Recent packaged developers by Fujifilms do not have a published formula. Here is a list of developers whose MSDS is available. Fujifilm's MSDS omits ingredients whose contents is below one percent. Therefore, agents typically used in small quantities must be guessed and filled in. This includes phenidone (or its derivative), potassium bromide, and benzotriazole. However, benzotriazole is difficult to prepare in dry form and therefore less likely to be the antifoggant of choice for these products.

Fujidol E is a standard fine grain developer supplied in dry powder package. This developer uses isoascorbic acid. Mildly alkaline solution pH is maintained by sodium sulfite with addition of a very small amount of sodium metabisulfite. No buffering agent is listed in the MSDS, so small amounts of carbonate, phosphate, borates, etc. are possible. Also, this developer is likely to contain phenidone or its derivative as a nucleating agent, and possibly potassium bromide.

Microfine is a ultrafine grained developer supplied in dry powder package. This formula somewhat resembles a cross of D-25 and Microdol. The developing agent is metol (3-7%). The solution contains a large amount of sodium sulfite (70-90%), some sodium chloride (7-15%), and a small amount of sodium phosphate monobasic (0.5-1.5%) to make the solution pH very weakly alkaline.

Super Prodol (SPD) is a rapid processing, push process developer provided in dry powder package. The developing agent listed is hydroquinone (3.9%) which is probably augmented with phenidone or its derivative. The developer contains 70-90% of sodium sulfite, and buffered with metaboric acid (3.4%) and sodium carbonate (3-7%). This formula resembles Crawley's FX-37. This developer is likely to contain bromide restrainer or possibly other antifoggant.

Artdol is a powder developer for tray processing of sheet films. Part A: sodium sulfite (50-70%), sodium carbonate (15-30%), metabolic acid 12%, hydroquinone 5.8%, Metol 0.5-1.5%, water 0.5-1.5%. Part B: sodium sulfite 70-90%, sodium chloride 7-15%, Metol 3-7%, monosodium phosphate, 0.5-1.5%, water 0.5-1.5%. Working solution: sodium sulfite 5-10%, sodium carbonate 1-5%, water 80-100%.