Maris wrote:Good luck with that 20C water. I reckon that's too cold for efficient film processing and there's no technical justification for it. It's just a historic hangover from European style tap water. Running a full processing cycle, including archival washing, uses a lot of water and if it's all the same cheap out-of-the-tap stuff then film won't get thermally "shocked" and possibly reticulate.
I agree. I use 20C for convenience during the cooler half of the year, but aim for a higher temperature (and faster time) when it is hot. 20C is convenient because that's what all the published data uses although it's not hard to recalculate for higher temperatures. In summer time I aim for 25C development. Once the film has been developed, a few degrees in difference in the washing etc has never caused any reticulation problems for me, but I wouldn't want to push my luck too far.
As for an airconditioned darkroom, that's not a luxury that I have. Film development can happen any time but I have to delay my printing until the next cool change blows through. My "grand plan" is to have a proper dedicated (airconditioned) darkroom in our next house