Neofin Blue – A Developing Emergency

Changing from ID-11 to Rodinal a while back I found that using that near 130 year old formula compared to more conventional developers is so much more flexible, convenient and economic. When my last bottle ran out I was devastated to discover that I couldn’t find a sensibly priced replacement anywhere in Australasia, while getting it from anywhere else in the world removed the economic benefit significantly.

Neofin Blau/Blue

In my searches I came across Walkens, an Australian supplier of a wide range of photographic goods. They list among their developers Neofin Blue, a developer intended for slow to medium speed films that comes in convenient 50ml bottles for one shot use. I used the similarly convenient Neofin Colour kits in days long gone by for C41 film processing so I thought I would give it a try, despite the shipping cost. The bottles were a definite improvement on Colour’s lab style, snap off glass phials that I was terrified of cutting myself on and splashing colour chemicals over the wound! It never happened thankfully.

The six 50mm bottles in the kit are each one intended for single use. Times are given for two dilutions, mixing one bottle with water to make either 300ml or 500ml. There are instructions to increase times by 1.5x for a 700ml mix but the two listed times cover most tanks taking 35mm and 120 films.

Specific agitation guidance is included, very similar to most manual tanks. Initial 30 seconds continuous then one inversion every 30seconds.

Development times vary widely, with my current Rollei Retro 80S being dauntingly short, 2 minutes for 35mm and 3 for 120. Pan F and FP4+ are going to siut me better.

First film

My first film was a 120 Rollei RPX 25 I shot on my Kalloflex TLR. With a fairly short time of 5 minutes at 20ºC I decided to agitate with the central rod of my Paterson tank for the first 30 seconds.

Big mistake!

Inversion agitation is essential to ensure even initial coverage of the film and I had some badly unevenly developed negatives as well as some good ones.

Second film

My second film was Rollei retro 80S 35mm in an Olympus IS-5000. Learning from my earlier mistake, and because the time is shorter for the higher concentration of 35mm and only 2 minutes for Retro 80S, I used inversion agitation from the start. This is definitely the way to go. I had a strip of negatives with just a hint of unevenness so inversion must distribute the developer quickly and evenly but maybe two inversions are needed.

Third film

A third film, an Ilford HP5+ 120 was exposed in my Kalloflex TLR. This isn’t listed in the instructions because this developer is designed to work best with slower films. The now obslete Neofin Rot/Red was the developer for faster films. There is a time in the Massive Development Chart (http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php) however, which is what I used with good results. There was a hint of uneven development but very minor compared to the first film. Like the 35mm comment, two inversions at intervals would be better.

Post-processing benefits.

Compared with negatives from Rodinal and ID 11, Neofin Blue produces a less contrasty result but with finer grain.

The low contrast and very fine grain means that contrast and sharpening can be applied in post with little or no effect on quality.

Outside the box (instructions)

I do like a steady, quiet life and some of the development times here really push up my blood pressure. I wondered if other dilutions would produce a little more flexibility with the short times using a split bottle. I have a small pottle which takes 30ml filled to the brim to use as a decanter to help keeping properties.

This gave me the chance to try two other film/dilution combinations, 20:300 or 1:15, close to the 700 timing, and 30:300 or 1:10 which is the same as for 120, both with 35mm Rollei Retro 80S. With 120 these would be 1:25 and 1:17 respectively so maybe 2.5x and 1.5x for these extrapolated from the 1.5x increase for 700ml. Not a huge extension in times but a chance to see if it was worth pursuing further.

I shot part of a 35mm Rollei retro 80S in my Retina IIc using the 20ml mix for 3 minutes. I had left my exposure meter on 200 by mistake but there were not many completely un-useable frames.

I finished off the film in my Canon 7 with the Industar 26M with the 30ml mix for 3 minutes. Despite shooting on a dullish day, I think the sun affected things here.

The edge markings from both dilutions were well defined so development is adaquate. Probably using two lots of 25ml, 1:12, and developing for 3.5 to 4 minutes for 35mm might give a slightly more ‘robust’ negative.

Other examples

Conclusions

Just from this unscientific, practical level test it is clear that this is not a developer to replace Rodinal for the same convenience, look or economy. And the short development times for one of my favoured films makes fine tuning less precise, calling for adjustments in seconds rather than minutes. But post processing is very forgiving and grain is fine if that is what is needed so worth having as an option.

In the few weeks it has taken to put this together I am pleased to report new stock of Adonal has reached this far flung corner so I am happy again and my remaining Neofin Blue will be kept on hand ready for a suitable use I have in mind.

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