Any Benefit to RA-4 Developer Starter?

[Ben 4]

I'm about to try my hand at printing color negatives for the first time and am ready to order the chemicals. Like other black & white printers looking at color chemistry, I'm a little confused. Within the Kodak world, it looks as if my choices are Ektacolor RA Developer (which comes in a 1 gallon size) and Ektacolor RA RT Developer Replenisher (in 10 liter size). Kodak says that the first does not require a starter, but that the second does. Meanwhile I've read here that the developer starter is not absolutely necessary for one-shot tray or drum processing in the RA RT Developer Replenisher.

Is there any benefit at all in using the starter for one-shot home developing? Would it, for example, provide consistency between the RA RT Developer Replenisher and regular Ektacolor RA Developer should I decide to switch? Or between the current RA RT Developer and some future tweaked version? Or should I just forget about the starter altogether?

--Ben

 

[Photo Engineer]

None!

PE

 

[yellowcat]

No advantage in using starter with one shot processing.

Starter is used in processing machines that use replenishment and it action is to make the freshly mixed developer close in character to replenished developer so that print quality will be consistent.

 

[Ian Grant]

Using RA-4 chemistry in a Nova system with replenishment, yes but as you only use it once in a blue moon it's hardly worth it.

Ian