Any disadvantage to ILFORD MULTIGRADE developer?

[Tom Kershaw]

As I understand ILFORD MG developer is supposed to give more even tonality when used with variable contrast papers, is there any active disadvantage to the developer? I've used the other standard liquid concentrate PQ Universal developer and can only perhaps detect a slight improvement in highlight separation but there isn't much in it.

Tom

 

[drpsilver]

25 Aug 2014

Tom:

This is my standard developer. The only disadvantage is that you can get what I call "the greenies". A slight overall green shade in the midtones. They always disappear with Se toning. Two other solutions I have used to avoid the above is: (1) instead of mixing the developer 1:9, mix it at 1:7, and (2) mix MG with Dektol (1:2) in a 1:1 ratio.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Darwin

 

[pgomena]

Dektol always gave my prints a slight greenish tint. In any case, selenium toner fixes things.

 

[cliveh]

As I understand ILFORD MG developer is supposed to give more even tonality when used with variable contrast papers, is there any active disadvantage to the developer? I've used the other standard liquid concentrate PQ Universal developer and can only perhaps detect a slight improvement in highlight separation but there isn't much in it.

Tom

I use this and have no complaints.

 

[pentaxuser]

Tom, did you see an increase in warmth with PQ? I met a UK APUGer on the 2008 Ilford tour who was a real fan of PQ( he actually used PQ as his name on APUG) and he said that the difference in warmth was very clear but the problem can be that we see what we want to see

pentaxuser

 

[Ian Grant]

My understanding is that Multigrade developer was designed to give a more consistent neutral colour with Multigrade papers at different contrasts, it came out before the Multigrade Warmtone paper. Put another way it stops shifts in warmth at different contrast grades.

Some developers get warmer with use as the bromide level increases. This was a problem for Ilford when they first started selling PQ print developers in the mid 1950s, intially the formulae just substituted Phenidone (at a much lower level) for the Metol. Fairly quickly the formulae were re-vamped to include Benzotriazole and a reduced level of Bromide.

Ian

 

[jp80874]

I love it with Kentmere Fineprint. I still have a freezer stash of 16x20 KF.

John Powers