I am in the process of trying out a pyro developer. I made a set of negatives to compare using the same subject (Madam Sherri's castle).
I'm not doing the exercise in search of a magic bullet, but it seems a good illustration that magic bullets are not real.
Of course there is a magic bullet. It's familiarity and skill with your chosen materials. =)
I've rolled through a few film/dev combination and they all had one thing in common. The more I worked with them the better my results. I'm finally sticking to one now. Smartest thing I've done in some time, I think.
I like your experiment! I've also found this to be true in my experimenting with developers. But sharpness is one thing that can be controlled through development. I am an Xtol guy, but the more and more I play around with Rodinal I've starting to really like the sharpness I'm getting from that developer. Thanks for sharing!
For non semi-stand development I prefer Xtol. But since I mainly do semi-stand development my soup of choice is PyroCat. But then again I haven't worked up any tables for semi-stand in Xtol. Ummmm.
No Magic, just hard work and for those that give it all, get great results. I usually don't change but when I stumble across something that someone is doing and it could help me I give it a try. I use Pryrocat for sheets and Microdol-x for roll.I go back and forth from ansco 130 to amidol. I have two enlargers but right now I'm doing Pl/Pt with my sheet file and digital negs with my small film to make pl/pt. I have found no magic bullet to make my prints better. If pyro was a small grain developer I would use it with all negs but it isn't so I have two. Ansco to Amidol-Amidol to Ansco. my prints snap with both. I guess making enlargements I use the Ansco more due to cost and quanitity.
love you all
mike andersen
PS. scanning pyro is harder for APUG.
Good technique, good film, the developer doesn't make all that much difference. I have pretty much settled on Rodinal and Pyrocat HD, because both are VERY economical in their high dilutions. Rodinal gives great sharpness with slow speed films ( I use Pan-F) and I like that you can get the same contrast with slight under-development in Pyrocat.