H&W Control dates back to the late 1960s and a patent issued in 1973, which is long expired.  Its major drawback is that, in modern usage for microfilm in subminiature cameras, even 100 ml of concentrate is likely to expire due to oxidation in a partly full container before it can be used up -- my subminiature developing tank requires only sixty milliliters of working solution for a roll of Minolta 16 (60 cm by 16 mm width) or similar size film, which means 100 ml will process twenty-five rolls; that's more than I shoot (in this format) in a year, but the shelf life is listed as, at most, six months in a completely full glass or PET bottle.

My formula is an attempt to create a longer life version by adding the phenidone to the solution at dilution time.  Unlike the original formula, because I'm not attempting to dissolve the phenidone in the stock solution, I don't need to start with hot water.  The commercial Bluefire Police developer, available from Frugal Photographer, is said (by the proprietor of that business) to be a long life reformulation of H&W Control, also, though his method is clearly different from mine, since his concentrate simply needs to be diluted and used.

It's recommended in my sources to avoid acid stop bath because the sodium carbonate forms carbon dioxide in contact with acid, and can cause pinholes in the emulsion from bubble formation.  The amount of carbonate in the diluted developer is so low, and the emulsions of microfilms so thin, that I doubt this is actually a problem, but no harm is done by using one or two rinses in plain water in place of acid stop bath.

100 ml	Water
1.9 g	Sodium Sulfite (anhydrous)
0.3 g	Hydroquinone
8.7 g	Sodium Carbonate
To make 200 ml	Water
15.15 g	Sodium Sulfite
	Water to make 250 ml
Mix ingredients in order listed, ensuring each is fully dissolved before adding the next.  Make up your phenidone as a stock solution, 1 g/L strength in 91% or stronger isopropyl alcohol (available at pharmacies), in which that little phenidone will pretty readily dissolve and will keep for years, then add one part phenidone stock for each 12 parts of developer stock solution at time of dilution.  Use one part stock to fifteen parts water; do not attempt to store or reuse the stock solution, as once diluted it has a working life of only hours, at most.

This developer was created in an attempt to salvage some Tri-X sheet film negatives that were loaded backward and exposed through the base, approximately five stops of antihalation between the lens and the emulsion.  It works very well, and with the recommended process prints at near-normal contrast rather than showing the extreme contrast you'd get with a conventional push (which, in any case, can't come anywhere near this level).  It seems to get literally everything possible out of any film on which I've treid it -- and given what's in it, is most likely developing to completion, which is what controls the contrast.

6 ounces water
24 ml Dektol stock solution
8 ml HC-110 syrup (or 32 ml stock solution)
1 g ascorbic acid
1/2 tsp washing soda (sodium carbonate monohydrate)
2 g potassium bromide (optional)
Water to make eight ounces

Develop for fifteen minutes, agitating very vigorously every thirty seconds.  Stop and fix normally.  Some fog is normal, and can be printed through.  You will (of course) see an increase in grain, but it's not as much as you might expect; with large format and even the larger medium format negatives the grain increase may be barely noticeable (and isn't objectionable in comparison to super-fast films in 35 mm).

B&W Reversal -- first attempt, 26 May 2006

This developer was originally published by Patrick D. Dignan in the November-December 1995 issue of Phototechniques magazine.  I've modified the Bath B very slightly to use more readily available chemicals and to reflect my own experience.

Like most two-bath developers, little or no development takes place in Bath A; the developer permeates the emulsion, however, and the chemical thus carried over into Bath B does the work, developing essentially to exhaustion in the time allotted for Bath B.  This makes the process relatively insensitive to temperature variations; Dignan recommends 75° F, but my experience shows that, because it develops to exhaustion, the developer works effectively the same over a range of temperature from about 70° F up to at least 85° F.  Also like most two-bath systems, the Bath A has a very long life; I made up a liter initially, and have processed equivalent of about ten rolls over two months with no change in results (though I'm about to make up some more Bath A to use in replenishing the working solution, much as I'd use fresh Diafine to replenish the solutions in use).  The Bath A solution does tend to discolor over time with dyes washed out of the film, but this doesn't seem to cause any change in working characteristics.

Bath B is to be used one-shot -- it contains no preservative, and in fact is essentially just an alkaline solution of the proper pH with some restrainer added to control fog.  Dignan originally called out both potassium bromide and benzotriazole, but since I didn't have any benzotriazole (and the notes I found with the formula suggested Dignan had used the developer without it), I doubled his level of potassium bromide and found the developer worked fine that way.  This B bath is very cheap, so it's not painful to toss it down the drain after use.

I calculate that despite paying $24 for 100 grams of CD-4 to make the Bath A, this developer costs me around a nickel a roll to use because of the long life of Bath A and low cost of Bath B -- as was always the case, it's the bleach that's expensive (commercial bleach is $26 a gallon and is used as it comes, undiluted, a gallon good for about 32 rolls), but I'll soon be testing a homemade ferricyanide bleach.  C-41 fixer and final rinse are so cheap I doubt I'll ever bother trying to make up substitutes -- the fixer is similarly priced to B&W rapid fixer, and if you can find no-starter-needed third party C-41 fixers, they're typically even cheaper than the Kodak Flexicolor Fixer, while Flexicolor Final Rinse is similarly priced and used at similar dilution to PhotoFlo (1+110, or 9 ml to make a liter of working solution) -- again, not really worth seeking a substitute.

It is strongly recommended to increase bleach and fixing times over those given in the usual C-41 documentation; due to lower temperature, these baths will work slower than they would at the canonical 100° F.  I've found that Flexicolor Bleach III gets the job done in ten minutes, even so, and I've been giving ten minutes in fixer as well.  However, you can neither overbleach nor overfix C-41; both processes should be carried to completion, and no harm can be done by leaving the film in these baths longer (within reason).

Bath A
300 ml	Distilled Water
0.5 g	Sodium Bisulfite
5.5 g	CD-4
4.5 g	Sodium Sulfite (anhydrous)
	Distilled water to make 500 ml
pH at 75° F should be 6.5 or lower (though I haven't tested mine, having no way to check pH)

Bath B
500 ml	Distilled or Filtered Water
45 g	Sodium Carbonate (monohydrate) aka washing soda
1 g	Potassium Bromide
	Water to make 1 liter
pH with original potassium carbonate is listed as 11.8 at 75° F; sodium carbonate should give 11.6 and works just fine