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Site © Copyright Barry Thornton 1999 - 2003
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Brilliance in black & white
for you
OLD - THE ORIGINAL STÖECKLER TWO BATH
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| While the use of two bath developers goes back
into the mists of photographic time, one man deserves the credit
for bringing the wonderful advantages of the process to the
mass of photographers - Heinrich Stöecker. He had already
devised a very successful rapid acting two bath developer back
in the 1930s for press use. As the Leica made 35mm a force to
be reckoned with, he turned his attention to that format. In
the 30s, films were still thick emulsion, and 35mm photographers
fought a battle with grain. Stöeckler's two bath for 35mm
was published in Leica News and Technique pre-war. It was an
instant hit among the Leicaphiles and other 35mm enthusiasts.
It was a very simple formula which treated the grainy emulsions
with absolute kid gloves. It gave VERY soft working for minimum
grain and maximum compensation, essential with the emulsions
of the time if highlight exposures were not to be pushed over
the shoulder of the characteristic curve during development
and thus block up. The automatic delicate graduation was also
very valuable to these first users of long rolls of film with
very variable subject brightness range shots. Previously, photographers
using plates or sheet film could adjust exposure and development
for each individual image. The Stöeckler two bath also
became very popular with architectural photographers for building
interiors, such as churches, where there is a huge subject brightness
range when exterior windows appear along with shadowed interiors.
With today's thin emulsion films, the formula is often too soft
working, and there is often a speed loss of about 2/3 stop.
However, it does give a certain smooth 'look' which many photographers
find very appealing - with child and female portraits for instance
- and architectural photographers still find it a wondeful developer.
FP4 loves it! Available direct from Fine Print with history
and very detailed instructions in an A+B, *1.5* litre each,
pack. Please note that developers have occasionally been sold
under this name (well, actually, the name has been misspelled)
where the formula has been altered for ease of manufacture and
distribution. This sometimes resulted in crystallisation and
settling out of the second bath. The developer we sell is the
correct original formula and has none of these problems. |
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