Eco Pro Chemistry

[Lam-Bartll]

Hello!
I'm a huge fan of Ilford chemistry but I'm trying to look into someways to save money while being able to continue printing photos in the darkroom and one brand I'm interested in is Eco Pro; has anyone here ever used any of their stuff? What were your thoughts?

Currently my chemistry setup is DDX for film and Ilford multigrade for paper and their standard rapid fixer and stop so I'm interested in Eco Pro's darkroom chemistry and maybe their XTOL clone. It looks like Eco Pro is cheaper than the Ilford stuff and it's supposedly better for the environment too. I'd love to know the community's thoughts.

Thanks!

 

[btaylor]

I’ve used a lot of their stuff as it is distributed through Freestyle, which is local to me. I am also a bit of a tightwad and have used the bargains from Freestyle for more than 50 years. The Eco Pro stuff is good, never failed me.

 

[loccdor]

I've heard good things about Eco Pro / Legacy Pro products and have some of the wetting agent to try after my other bottle is depleted.

I think the environmental stuff is most likely just branding but everyone likes a good value-for-money proposition.

However, I'm a mostly HC-110 guy and I never found this developer or others like Rodinal to be a very large expense compared to the film itself.

 

[MattKing]

FWIW, I expect it is actually manufactured by Photo Systems, who are now the manufacturer and licensee for Kodak branded photo chemistry, and may be manufacturing some of the Ilford stuff as well.

 

[blee1996]

I used to use DD-X, and now I replaced it with Clayton F76+ (also sold as Arista Premium Liquid film developer). F76+ is much cheaper than DD-X and in my humble opinion works just as well. So this could be another option.

 

[johnwwyatt]

I completely switched from DDX to LegacyPro a few years ago and am very happy. I shoot mainly Ilford HP5 and use LP 110 to develop which gives me nice contrasty negatives that I like for lith printing. You can also get it at B&H for a good price.

 

[btaylor]

I've heard good things about Eco Pro / Legacy Pro products and have some of the wetting agent to try after my other bottle is depleted.

I think the environmental stuff is most likely just branding but everyone likes a good value-for-money proposition.

However, I'm a mostly HC-110 guy and I never found this developer or others like Rodinal to be a very large expense compared to the film itself.

True, developer costs are generally minimal per roll or sheet. LegacyPro L110 performs identically to Kodak HC110 (same time, dilutions) at considerably lower cost. I would guess that both the Kodak and LegacyPro products are likely identical now that Photo Systems is manufacturing both.