Choosing the combo

Michael R 1974 said:

Well another general purpose developer you might want to consider then, is XTOL (at 1+1 dilution to start). It is an excellent developer that will give you slightly more speed, slightly higher sharpness, and slightly finer grain than D76, all at the same time. I would definitely recommend XTOL over TMAX developer on all fronts. TMAX developer has good speed going for it, but is not particularly fine grained or sharp.

The one problem with XTOL (in my opinion of course) is mixing it, since the smallest package you can buy makes 5 liters. So compared to D76 and other powders, I find it fairly cumbersome to mix (instead of simple mixing in a graduate cylinder I have to use a bucket). Other than that, it is one of the best, if not the best all around general purpose developer out there and works well with both conventional and tabular films. The improvements over D76 are not dramatic, but worth considering.

Most of the other advice you're getting in this thread is sound.

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I have this developer but i didn't open the box and didn't use it yet, as you said, the problem is with mixing, and another problem that worrying me is that if i will not develop many films then this developer will not last longer, i read it can die anytime suddenly if that is correct, so i will not start it until i can see myself ding a lot of film shooting to use it, otherwise it will be like i will use only 1-2L of that 5L working solution and i will throw the rest when exhausted.

jeroldharter said:

I agree about picking any combo and testing it is the best way to get started. I did the same thing.

Factors to consider are availability, shipping costs, keeping quality in a warm environment.

I would eliminate liquid developers. I would pick Kodak or Ilford films based on availability.

Also, you should keep in mind reciprocity characteristics depending on the type of photography you do.
I picked Kodak TMY2 (TMAX 400) with Xtol when I went through the same process.

To reassure yourself, you might pick 2 films and 2 developers and do testing each.

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i think the only films available in my country are TMAX [400, not sure about 100] and Ilford [HP5+ and FP4+], and from one store they have only Ilfosol 3 [they sell Ilford products] and there is one company sell Kodak products and i bought TMAX developer from them first time and i think they sold me one D-76 and then they don't have it anymore, i will check with them again, i bought some TMAX films from them as well and to the stores/studios they distribute which are about 3-4 only in the whole country.

Honestly speaking, i am very happy with TMAX film and TMAX developer so far, i had zero issue with this developer but the films if developer with another developer then it can be zero issue or some issues, but the film itself is perfect, also ilfosol 3 i have zero issue with slower film as i developer faster film and got a results not that perfect even it is nice, but i read that it is for slower film so i used it for slower film and also zero issues and beautiful results, i just was hoping that to make that D-76 as zero issue and to be used great as Ilfosol 3 and TMAX, no guess work or not sure about this or that, it seems for me that the liquid developers are very easy and better convenient usage over powders mixing solutions, will see if i will use HC-110 in the future if that is true.