Can I use Sprint’s STANDARD Film Developer to develop prints?
The short answer would be yes, with some SIGNIFICANT “buts” included. Most film and paper developers are similar in that many use the same developing agents in them. Most often they use a combination of Metol and Hydroquinone or Phenodone and Hydroquinone. Sprint is in the latter category. Although we cannot discuss the exact formula of Sprint’s chemistry, if we look at published formulas for some common film and print developers, we can see that they are similar, but the proportion of Metol to Hydroquinone is different. The amount of developing agent is different too, so right at the start we would say that you would want to use the film developer at a higher concentration, say 1:4 or greater. Please keep in mind that while you will get an image, you may not like the results. When developing prints, you generally want to get the maximum black that the paper can handle. That is what the extra hydroquinone in the formula is there for. With film, one generally wants less than it’s maximu
