Anyone have any experience with pyro developers?

[Xia_Ke]

Just curious on opinions from those that have used them. I'm looking to try either PMK or WD2D+ from Photographer's Formulary.

[photophorous]

Just curious on opinions from those that have used them. I'm looking to try either PMK or WD2D+ from Photographer's Formulary.

I've never tried any, but I've been tempted. The one thing that stands out in my mind is that they are more toxic than typical developers and should be handled with care. I'm looking forward to hearing about your experience with it. I'm still playing with DD-X and liking it a lot.

Paul

[Xia_Ke]

HI Paul, still haven't quite made up my mind if I'll go the pyro route or not. I've been very happy with HC110. The K110, while giving the same results, has a few draw backs compared to HC110 so I don't think I would buy it again. I still have another bottle of it but, will probably just keep it as a backup. I dunno, just thought it time to try something different and pyro developers have me intrigued.

[photophorous]

What characteristics of pyro are you interested in? I don't know much about it, but I think I remember it is supposed to be high accutance and it has a kind of compensating effect in the highlights. Is that right?

In the past I considered trying DiXactol for the compensating effects. I decided on Diafine instead, because it has ridiculously long shelf life and is less toxic. But unfortunately the grain produced by Diafine doesn't play well with my Coolscan, so I've only used it a few times. The Coolscan is known to exaggerate B&W grain, and I find this especially true when using high accutance developers. It probably matters a lot less with wet printing, especially medium format.

Paul

[Xia_Ke]

...it has a kind of compensating effect in the highlights. Is that right?

That's my understanding of it and the reason why I want to give it a shot. Unfortunately the main component, Pyrogallol, is rather toxic but, I want to start breaking into some alt processes too, like cyanotypes. So I figure it will be good practice for dealing with harsher chemicals...LOL

[photophorous]

That's my understanding of it and the reason why I want to give it a shot. Unfortunately the main component, Pyrogallol, is rather toxic but, I want to start breaking into some alt processes too, like cyanotypes. So I figure it will be good practice for dealing with harsher chemicals...LOL

I just looked up "cyanotype" because I couldn't remember what it was. Turns out I've done that, but we called it a blueprint. High school drafting class. By the time I got to college it was all computers. Yeah...that's a little different than what you're talking about.

Have you read about DiXactol? That one is supposed to have particularly good compensating effects because it is a staining pyro and a two part developer. But, I don't know what the downsides are.

I'm sure the toxicity issue can be kept under control as long as you're careful.

[Xia_Ke]

I read a little bit on DiXactol on the Photographer's Formulary website. That was another I was considering actually. I read somewhere on one of the forums though that the staining in Pyrocat/Pyro HD/WD2D lent itself better to printing with graded paper than the DiXactol did. IIRC someone had said that it had been geared more towards VC papers since the other developers could get a little tricky with VC.