Dokumol vs Eukobrom

[brian steinberger]

A recent thread got me researching these developers. Sound like two nice cold tone developers. Anyone have experience with either or both to share? Seems middle of the road price wise. I currently use LPD now which is super cheap. But I'm interested in trying one of these developers on the new ilford papers. Which is colder? And is dokumol too much of a "special-purpose" developer to be used for general printing because of it's high contrast?

 

[David Allen]

Dokumol has been my only developer for a number of years. It is very hard working can give 1/2 grade increase in contrast, renders prints neutral in colour (even with the long lost Polywarmtone) and has, in my opinion, a particular 'look' that I have always liked.

With fibre paper (mixed at 1 + 6) it gives very deep blacks when you process for 3 minutes and will keep on darkening your image with no fogging up to at least 6 minutes (I have never used it longer than that and my standard developing times is 3 minutes plus draining off the developer). When the shared darkroom that I used to use closed down (the others didn't want to carry on with analogue photography) I was given some Eukobrom. I tried it and, whilst a perfectly serviceable developer, it didn't suit my way of working / print style. In my current darkroom I only have Dokumol.

Dokumol is not a 'special purpose' developer (just manufacturers hype) but rather a very robust developer that renders everything neutral so I would expect you would be very pleased with the results on the new cold-tone paper.

Let us know how you get on with it.

Bests,

David
www.dsallen.de

 

[brian steinberger]

Thank you David for that wonderful information. I think I'm going to order a bottle of each and print the same neg using each developer. Cause like they say, u never know til you try. Just nice hearing others experiences.