PMK vs D76

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Ronald - 20 Aug 2004 20:22 GMT

Hi. There was an article in the recent Photo Techniques which compared
the two developrs. My takeaway was that under some very limited
circumstances, according to the article, PMK was marginally superior
to D76, dependant on the kind of paper you planned on printing with.

I have started using PMK and like it, but that is purely subjective on
my part. I will do some tests, using some complicated shots (on 4x5
FP4+) and scan in the negs, check them in PS, and also some test
printing (on Bergger VBNB paper).

But my question is: Is the general sense here that the article was on
the money or way off? (or both!)

RON

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Gregory Blank - 20 Aug 2004 20:49 GMT

Haven't read the article. Any developer is better or worse depending
one who is using it, how sloppy or careful they are.

D76 is a forgiving developer use it 1+1 or more dilute
and you can get good/maybe excellent results.

As all us Pyro advocates will tell you, PMK produces
yellow staining of the negatives and acts as a contrast
filter,...reducing contrast. Something you'll work harder to
achieve with D76 if you can. Personally I like D23 1+1 far better
than D76.

> Hi. There was an article in the recent Photo Techniques which compared
> the two developrs. My takeaway was that under some very limited
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> RON

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John - 21 Aug 2004 08:42 GMT

>But my question is: Is the general sense here that the article was on
>the money or way off? (or both!)

IMO, it was accurate. I used PMK for about 6 years. Didn't
really care for it and didn't see much difference between it and D-76.

Regards,

John S. Douglas, Photographer - http://www.darkroompro.com
Please remove the "_" when replying via email

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Richard Knoppow - 22 Aug 2004 00:00 GMT

> Hi. There was an article in the recent Photo Techniques which compared
> the two developrs. My takeaway was that under some very limited
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> RON

The "advantage" of PMK and similar developers that
produce a stain image along with the silver is that its
supposed to work as a highlight contrast mask with variable
contrast paper. This effect does take place but it may or
may not be desirable depending on the subject. D-76 is a
very good general purpose developer. There are better
developers but their advantages are not very great. Xtol,
for instance, will yield a little higher speed (perhaps 3/4
stop) and somewhat finer grain but has had problems with
reliability. D-76 comes close to being optimum for most
films and is very reliable. While PMK has a good reputation
Pyro developers, in general, fell out of use because other
developers worked better.
I certainly would not discourage anyone from
experimenting with developers but IMHO its good practice to
make sure you can get good negatives with some conventional
combination so you have something to compare.

Signature

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@ix.netcom.com

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Dan Quinn - 22 Aug 2004 10:09 GMT

> But my question is: Is the general sense here that the article was
> on the money or way off? (or both!)

When it comes to the pudding, I was a little surprised. The article
was in no way a recommendation for PMK.
Prior to the pudding perhaps there are some reasons to use PMK:
1, No agitation required.
2, Any temperature will do.
3, and so forth. Dan

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