D-19 and Orwo Un54 Reversal Home Processing

Robert Ante · June 24, 2016

Finding no source in the US for several of the chemicals needed for making the developer recommended by Orwo (e.g. pentasodiumtriphosphate), I am wondering if anybody has used D-19 for reversal processing of Orwo 54 film. I use Lomo and Morse tanks for 16mm. I need suggested development times as well as some comment on the quality of results. Or perhaps someone has used other developers such as those suggested by Ilford and can provide time required for first developer. I am asking about home processing only since after laboriously gathering together all of the elusive chemicals required for developing Kodak 7266 I decided that the 60sec times are possible only with machine processing and went back to using D-19.

Richard Tuohy · June 26, 2016

You can treat it the same as trix. Whatever you do for that also works for un54.

With d19 I do 7 min at 21 degrees.

Naturally it does depend on your exposures and on your personal developing routine.

Robert Ante · June 26, 2016

Thank you Richard. The Orwo North America page says as much but I wanted to hear from someone with actual experience developing Orwo 54 reversal in d-19 just to make sure. Again, Thanks. I think I'll try a couple 100 ft. rolls. Again, Thank you for replying..

Jesse Andrewartha · July 6, 2016

I use Orwo 829 for all my reversal processing in tanks and in our Cramer processor... the dev time is double D-94/D-95 for more consistent results, plus my control strips end up much closer to the Kodak reference. Plus the phenidone/HQ developer combination helps with longevity. As far as the pentasodiumtriphosphate, I skip it... the water here is pretty soft and I don't seem to have any impact from not including it. I just mix up the other ingredients: sulfite, phenidone, hydroquinone, carbonate, bromide, thiocyanate and hydroxide and it works great, plus it can be replenished.

I recommend a second look at the 829.