Developer comparison: D-23 VS PMK

[DREW WILEY]

No cold tone paper at all at the moment, except odds n ends. When Ilford Cooltone is available again, I wonder if I'll even be able to afford it. Ilford papers have doubled in price here in the last two years, and the threatened additional tariffs haven't even kicked in yet. I'm down to half a box of 16X20 MGWT right now.

 

[MattKing]

Does Kodak Alaris still get royalties for the name Kodak on the label?

Eastman Kodak owns the name.
Kodak Alaris enjoys the benefit of a license to use the name, with respect to a wide variety of products and marketing and distribution of those products.
As do the makers and/or sellers, of a myriad of other products, with this being a typical example of same:

 

[Milpool]

No cold tone paper at all at the moment, except odds n ends. When Ilford Cooltone is available again, I wonder if I'll even be able to afford it. Ilford papers have doubled in price here in the last two years, and the threatened additional tariffs haven't even kicked in yet. I'm down to half a box of 16X20 MGWT right now.

I rarely have need for a dedicated cold tone paper but yeah I completely agree with you, the prices are bonkers and it’s causing me to print less and less. It’s a legacy product tactic and there isn’t anything to be done about it.

 

[GregY]

I rarely have need for a dedicated cold tone paper but yeah I completely agree with you, the prices are bonkers and it’s causing me to print less and less. It’s a legacy product tactic and there isn’t anything to be done about it.

I don't miss cold tone papers per se, but I prefer Ilford Cooltone to the Classic. Cooltone in Ansco130 or LPD offers some other tonal variations.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Paper prices are a real problem these days. I feel lucky that a few years ago I stumbled over someone selling a stash of Ilford WT and bought a bunch. Half my refridgerator is stuffed with it. I am almost afraid to use it... Prices feel brutal, at least for those of us that have been around long enough to remember a box of 8x10x100 that cost $40.

As far as film developers go, I've used so many that I can't count. The very first developer I used when I started was Rodinal. I still use it today. I usually develop 35mm and smaller films with Rodinal. For larger films I use PMK. I used PMK for years then switched to Pyrocat because of what everyone was bloviating about back 20 years ago or so. A few years back I did a deep dive through prints and it was clear to me that PMK gave much nicer highlights in my prints so I switched back. I don't recall what the progenitor of PMK said about highlights. I read the book but it was way back in the 90s. I just know that when I look at the prints I make from negs developed with PMK, me likey.... In the end that is all that really matters for any of us plebs.