Can HC-110 do everything or should I try a new dev?

I started out developing with HC-110 and am just nearing the end of my first giant bottle and starting to think about sampling the waters, so to speak. With HC-110, I bounced around a lot of films but my favorites I settled on were Tri-X @ 800, FP4 @ 100, and Foma 400 @ 400. Mostly dilution B, sometimes H. I like contrast and accutance. Visual sharpness. I don't mind grain so much, but I do mind speed loss.

Lately I've been looking back at my negatives and comparing them to others on flickr and I find that I do not have as large a tonal range as I would like. I have especially been disappointed with my results on HP5 which always seems to turn out mushy and low contrast. Is it worth picking up a bottle of rodinal, a box of ID-11, microphen, or some DDX? Or can HC-110 give me everything I want and I get to keep the knowledge I already have from it?

As for other diagnostics, I measure temperature pretty precisely (digital), use distilled water [side note - this is something I would like to stop doing because it is annoying], shoot mostly medium format with a hasselblad with reasonably good (-1 stop max) shutter, and meter with an incident sekonic. I stop with PF TF-4 and do not use a stop bath inbetween.

Hi

I have never used HC-110 until just recently and I have only tested it with a few rolls and sheets of HP5+. Just like you I was kind of disappointed with the result; i suspect speed loss (havent done any proper film tests...) and low contrast. I suspect the dev time suggested in the datasheet is to short for my processing (5min @ dil B). I have had much better luck with D76 1+1.

I will follow this thread with great interest to learn what photographers with more experience on HC-110 me can bring to the thread!

Give D-76 or ID-11 a try, it has been my go to for 20 years. I am going to experiment with other home grown developers but haven't even had time to test out some recently repaired camera.......

Like in similar threads, most of us are likely to just share our favorite developer and film combinations and then suggest those combinations to you. Make of that what you will. I'd just keep it at the observation that most modern, common developers can be used to get very usable results from just about any regular film. If your negatives are flat and low in contrast, just increase development.

Experimenting with developers is certainly fun, don't get me wrong, and there are (usually subtle) differences between developers, so sure, go ahead and try whatever you want to try. But if you were left on the face of the earth with only HC110 as a B&W developer, I'm sure you'd be able to make good images with it.

Your shutter is off by 1 stop? That could be a problem unless you know which speeds are off and are compensating for this after metering. HC-110 is a fine dev and should give you good results. It is often called the liquid form of D-76 which is the same as ID-11.

Rodinal is a bit different. It is not a fine grain developer and gives a slight speed loss t many photographer. However, it is also a staple in many peoples darkroom.

HC110 is a fantastic all-round developer with many 'different' looks depending upon dilution, agitation and temperature.

In answer to your question “can HC-110 give me everything I want and I get to keep the knowledge I already have from it?” the answer is simply yes. It is far better to thoroughly learn how best to use a single developer than jumping around using different developers searching for a ‘magic bullet’.

In your post you stated that “I do not have as large a tonal range as I would like” and that “HP5 which always seems to turn out mushy and low contrast”. The tonal range of your negatives is primarily controlled by correct exposure and development time. Whenever people come to me complaining of “mushy and low contrast” negatives it is always the case that they are both under-exposing and under-developing their films. This is not the result of using HC110 but of poor technique. All mainstream developers will give you good results provided your technique is correct.

Over 30 years of working as a commercial photographer I used HC110 for practically all my assignments with the exception of indoor architectural assignments where I often used a two-bath developer (or HC110 with a water bath) to cope with extreme brightness ranges.

With all my novice students, I always start them with HC110 and stress the need to be consistent every time that they develop film. The reasons that I use HC110 are:

• It is easily available.
• It is a very good all-round developer.
• Dilution and agitation can produce a wide variety of ‘looks’.
• The concentrate lasts forever (important for me because I only use it for teaching - I do not use it for my own films and I will write more about this later - and it is great for the students because they generally are not shooting large amounts of film so the developer has to last a long time).
• It is extremely cheap to use.
• Given the very low levels of HC110 needed to process a single film it is much more environmentally friendly than many other developers and this appeals to many of my younger students.

The key point to note about HC110 is that it is a very demanding developer to use because you must be absolutely consistent every time that you use it. This means totally consistent dilution, temperature and agitation methodology every single time from start to finish.

Finally, why don’t I use it now? The reason is that, with the advent of digital photography and clients demanding digital images with delivery within hours, I stopped working commercially. Since then I have concentrated on my personal photography and teaching. Approximately 15 years ago, my personal work took a large turn whereby I now am photographing urban scenes with extremely large subject brightness ranges (i.e a courtyard in shadow with brick walls darken over the years through wartime bombing and homes being heated with brown coal in one part of the image and a newly painted white wall in full sunshine in another part of the same image). For this type of work I find Barry Thornton’s Two-Bath developer the ideal solution.

So, in summary, persevere with HC110 until you learn exactly how to use it to achieve excellent consistent results over a wide variety of subject matter. Once you have done this, and only then, if you find it unsuitable for a particular task this would be the time to try another developer.

All the best on your photographic journey,

David.
www.dsallen.de

I use hcB for everything. Just as professional who runs Burlington Camera store. I don't think anything else is this compact, easy to use and lasts long. Well, Rodinal if I'm lazy.
Yes, HP5 in hcB looks dull or with limited DR. On scans. But my negatives are for prints.
Also, I'm not MF all about quality person. I'm known for else.

I would second David Allen's excellent post. Get to know, really know, one film developer combo. Your photos will be improved way more by printing, printing and printing a million times more than they will be by changing film developers. Some photographers get caught in an endless loop of searching for a holy grail film/developer combo.

What David said!

Try some D-76. I use both HC-110 and D-76. I prefer D-76 but HC-110 is much simpler to use and it stores forever. I tend to prefer the look of D-76 though.

I used to use HC-110 for the reasons listed above, but then I tried D-76 and never went back. It just seems to work well with every film I've ever tried it with.

There is a small bit of speed loss with HC-110, but if you compensate for that with a little extra exposure, you can make HC-110 do almost anything you wish.
Anything you see on flickr won't help you decide on a developer - it will just tell you something about how the user scanned the film and processed the digital file.
I used HC-110 exclusively for years, with the last several years in a replenishment regime. The discontinuance of the HC-110 replenisher has resulted in my moving to replenished X-Tol for most of my film, but I still use HC-110 one shot from time to time, and could do one more batch replenished, because I have one last bottle of replenisher.
There are developers that are much more specialized that can offer things that HC-110 doesn't - things like Diafine, pyro developers, acutance developers and high contrast developers - but with the possible exception of the pyro developers, they rarely serve well as general purpose developers.

There is nothing wrong with trying other developers, after you've used just one over time... and trying it at various dilutions.

I started using HC110 Money years ago after using D76 and I found a Very versatile developer. You can get different looks simply by different changing your agitation. You can use it as a composting developer to hold back to much contrast.It can do everything you want it to do.

Louis Nargi said:

You can use it as a composting developer

Click to expand...

I expect you mean "compensating", but the idea of a "composting" developer made me smile.

Pyrocat-HD makes for a better composting developer....

Your right sorry

Louis Nargi said:

Your right sorry

Click to expand...

No apologies necessary!

MattKing said:

I expect you mean "compensating", but the idea of a "composting" developer made me smile.

Click to expand...

My dad used to have a rather large garden and he always said, "Pour a bottle of HC-110 on the compost pile, it gets it started!" Louis, we know what you were saying, but we have to have a bit of fun.

I've heard a couple times in this thread that changing agitation is key to controlling the look of hc-110. I just follow Kodak's instructions and do wrist twists for 5 seconds every 30. Can anyone direct me towards a resource that would help me tune agitation towards the look I want?

markbau said:

I would second David Allen's excellent post. Get to know, really know, one film developer combo. Your photos will be improved way more by printing, printing and printing a million times more than they will be by changing film developers. Some photographers get caught in an endless loop of searching for a holy grail film/developer combo.

Click to expand...

how true... we keep switching developers to find what we want and it's right in front of us... i finally learned, one film, developer, paper and use them to expand my limits - and do it for a year, at minimum! my best lesson ever!

p.s. when i did use hc110, (which is great), i used it as a one shot developer using jason brunner formulation.

I believe if you can't get good results (maybe not optimal, but good) from a mainstream developer and mainstream film, then the problem is your technique. Or perhaps the freshness of your materials. I can't back it up with hard facts, but I think that while Kodak and Ilford may optimize their own film/developer combinations, they still make sure you'll get at least acceptable results using other common films or developers.

Keep in mind that if your shutter is off by one stop and your meter is off by one stop, you may be right on the money but you could also be 2 stops off.

If you're seeing others get good results with HP5 and HC-110, then you can too.

Grim Tuesday said:

I've heard a couple times in this thread that changing agitation is key to controlling the look of hc-110. I just follow Kodak's instructions and do wrist twists for 5 seconds every 30. Can anyone direct me towards a resource that would help me tune agitation towards the look I want?

Click to expand...

Hmmmm, any given agitation method is very easy to demonstrate to someone but much harder to describe. Anyway, I will have a go.

My standard method of agitation is 4 gentle inversions in the first 30 seconds and then one gentle inversion every subsequent 30 seconds. What do I mean by a gentle inversion? This is slowly turning the tank upside down (180˚) and then back again followed by a tap on the bottom to release any air bells that may have formed. The way I describe it to my students when they are watching me is for them to imagine that in front of them is a giant lower case letter 'n'. You pick up the tank and then slowly follow the shape of the 'n' from left to right and then backwards from right to left. Following this method will give you consistent results and forms your base agitation method.

The influence of agitation method, time, the accuracy in dilution of the syrup and temperature are most noticeable when using Dilution B (1 + 31). If you invert twice per 30 seconds or you process at 1˚C higher than 20˚C (ALL chemicals should be at the same temperature and my standard is 20˚C) or you process 30 seconds longer than whatever your standard developing time is you will see a significant increase in contrast.

By the way the best method for measuring the syrup is with a 10ml oral syringe (used for measuring liquids and without the need for a needle). You draw up the required amount of HC110 syrup and squirt it in to the water. Give the mixture a quick stir and then use the syringe to draw of some of the solution and squirt back in to the developer. Repeat several times until absolutely no HC110 syrup is left in the syringe. Then thoroughly clean the syringe for next use. This method will give you accurate dilution every single time.

Many people prefer to use Dilution H (1 + 63) which gives longer and more manageable development times. Slight changes in temperature, agitation method and time have less of an effect at this dilution (but should be avoided wherever possible). However, it is very important to note that when you mix up the developer there must be at least 6 mL of syrup per each roll of film. So, if your tank indicates that you need 300ml of solution to process a film you would need 4.7ml of HC110 syrup and this is NOT enough for the developer to work correctly. What you need to do is add 9.4ml of HC110 syrup to 600ml of water. You then fill the tank and through away (or use later in the day) the remaining mixed solution. This is not as wasteful as it seems as HC110 is so cheap.

Hope that helps,

David.
www.dsallen.de

Sounds like HP5 + hc110 is your dream combo but you don’t know it.

Grim Tuesday said:

I started out developing with HC-110 and am just nearing the end of my first giant bottle and starting to think about sampling the waters, so to speak. With HC-110, I bounced around a lot of films but my favorites I settled on were Tri-X @ 800, FP4 @ 100, and Foma 400 @ 400. Mostly dilution B, sometimes H. I like contrast and accutance. Visual sharpness. I don't mind grain so much, but I do mind speed loss.

Lately I've been looking back at my negatives and comparing them to others on flickr and I find that I do not have as large a tonal range as I would like. I have especially been disappointed with my results on HP5 which always seems to turn out mushy and low contrast. Is it worth picking up a bottle of rodinal, a box of ID-11, microphen, or some DDX? Or can HC-110 give me everything I want and I get to keep the knowledge I already have from it?

As for other diagnostics, I measure temperature pretty precisely (digital), use distilled water [side note - this is something I would like to stop doing because it is annoying], shoot mostly medium format with a hasselblad with reasonably good (-1 stop max) shutter, and meter with an incident sekonic. I stop with PF TF-4 and do not use a stop bath inbetween.

Click to expand...

I'd say, if you like what you get from HC110 and your favourite films stick with it but if you like to experiment for a wider tonal range, try one of your favourite films in ID11 or D76, realising that you will lose some graininess.