Has anyone tried Eco Pro Black and White Paper Developer?

dcy · Jul 27, 2025

I just started using Ilford Multigrade paper developer. While I am happy with the results I'm getting, I am not thrilled with the price.

Has anyone tried Eco Pro Black and White Paper Developer? All other things being equal, I always like to buy products that are supposed to be less harmful to the environment, and this particular product is less than half the cost of Ilford Multigrade ($18 for 1 qt = 946 mL versus $23 for 500 mL for Ilford MG) and you use them at the same dilution (1+9) so the price is an apples to apples comparison.

I did try to find online discussions for this product and I found two people in the Large Format Photography forum who used it. Here's what they said:

Person 1: "Eco-Pro is a markedly softer-working developer, and gives a slightly warmer tone than Multigrade. The contrast is about 1/3 grade lower than Multigrade, in addition to which I had to add roughly 15% to the exposure to yield a comparable result in the print. This yielded a bit more of a shift in the mid-low values than in the high."

Person 2: "I usually develop Ilford MG FB prints in eco-pro 1+9 for 3 minutes. I have not done extensive comparisons with other developers, but the contrast seems fine and the tone neutral."

GregY · Jul 27, 2025

dcy said:
I just started using Ilford Multigrade paper developer. While I am happy with the results I'm getting, I am not thrilled with the price.

Has anyone tried Eco Pro Black and White Paper Developer? All other things being equal, I always like to buy products that are supposed to be less harmful to the environment, and this particular product is less than half the cost of Ilford Multigrade ($18 for 1 qt = 946 mL versus $23 for 500 mL for Ilford MG) and you use them at the same dilution (1+9) so the price is an apples to apples comparison.

I did try to find online discussions for this product and I found two people in the Large Format Photography forum who used it. Here's what they said:

Person 1: "Eco-Pro is a markedly softer-working developer, and gives a slightly warmer tone than Multigrade. The contrast is about 1/3 grade lower than Multigrade, in addition to which I had to add roughly 15% to the exposure to yield a comparable result in the print. This yielded a bit more of a shift in the mid-low values than in the high."

Person 2: "I usually develop Ilford MG FB prints in eco-pro 1+9 for 3 minutes. I have not done extensive comparisons with other developers, but the contrast seems fine and the tone neutral."

I've used it. No complaints. I thought it worked well. I was satisfied with the prints. I used it more for small stuff & work prints, not exhibition prints....
D, you yourself a favour & buy the gallon .....you save a lot more by not buying the small size... in this case $20 over buying 4x the 1 qt.....in addition to the price advantage over Ilford.
If you want to save more.... try the Arista paper developer @ $27 for 5 litres....

dcy · Jul 27, 2025

GregY said:
I've used it. No complaints. I thought it worked well. I was satisfied with the prints. I used it more for small stuff & work prints, not exhibition prints....
D, you yourself a favour & buy the gallon .....you save a lot more by not buying the small size... in this case $20 over buying 4x the 1 qt.....in addition to the price advantage over Ilford.
If you want to save more.... try the Arista paper developer @ $27 for 5 litres....

Good idea. Will do.

Pieter12 · Jul 27, 2025

dcy said:
I just started using Ilford Multigrade paper developer. While I am happy with the results I'm getting, I am not thrilled with the price.

Has anyone tried Eco Pro Black and White Paper Developer? All other things being equal, I always like to buy products that are supposed to be less harmful to the environment, and this particular product is less than half the cost of Ilford Multigrade ($18 for 1 qt = 946 mL versus $23 for 500 mL for Ilford MG) and you use them at the same dilution (1+9) so the price is an apples to apples comparison.

I did try to find online discussions for this product and I found two people in the Large Format Photography forum who used it. Here's what they said:

Person 1: "Eco-Pro is a markedly softer-working developer, and gives a slightly warmer tone than Multigrade. The contrast is about 1/3 grade lower than Multigrade, in addition to which I had to add roughly 15% to the exposure to yield a comparable result in the print. This yielded a bit more of a shift in the mid-low values than in the high."

Person 2: "I usually develop Ilford MG FB prints in eco-pro 1+9 for 3 minutes. I have not done extensive comparisons with other developers, but the contrast seems fine and the tone neutral."

Pieter12 · Jul 27, 2025

I have been using eco pro exclusively for the last 5 years. No complaints. I buy it by the gallon and transfer the contents to 1-quart bottles to help prolong its shelf life.

NMSS_2 · Jul 27, 2025

I’ve used both, and yeah, Eco Pro is a bit softer and slightly warmer than Ilford MG. You might need to bump exposure a bit, but it still gives nice results. For everyday prints, I think it’s totally worth it, especially at half the price. I keep both around and use Eco Pro for most stuff now.

Paul Howell · Jul 27, 2025

Artista is house branded Clayton, I've used Clayton off and on for many years, well decades at 1:9 produces neutral, using it 1:7 or 1:6 a bit colder, cannot say it is good for warm tones. I buy in small bottles as once opened does not a long life.

GregY · Jul 27, 2025

D, another fine & economical developer is Adox Neutol..... comes in 500ml bottles and is typically mixed 1:9....
& I have used it for exhibition prints. $12.49 @...... there was also a Neutol Wa.... which was a great developer w Forte papers.

dcy · Jul 27, 2025

Paul Howell said:
Artista is house branded Clayton, I've used Clayton off and on for many years, well decades at 1:9 produces neutral, using it 1:7 or 1:6 a bit colder, cannot say it is good for warm tones. I buy in small bottles as once opened does not a long life.

There are two Arista paper developers. Are you talking about the one that just says Arista (white + purple bottle) or about the "Premium" one (black bottle)?

Last year I bought the plain Arista one but then it went bad in less than a year. Perhaps I could've done a better job to protect it, but I am not eager to try again.

dcy · Jul 28, 2025

GregY said:
D, another fine & economical developer is Adox Neutol..... comes in 500ml bottles and is typically mixed 1:9....
& I have used it for exhibition prints. $12.49 @...... there was also a Neutol Wa.... which was a great developer w Forte papers.

Thanks!

Alan9940 · Jul 28, 2025

I had no complaints with the Eco Pro Paper developer other than it had a very short shelf life, once opened. Most likely my fault because I wasn't careful about keeping air out of the small bottle. If you decide on this developer, probably best to buy the larger quantity as others have suggested, then decant into full smaller bottles. Keep your "working bottle" free of oxygen as much as possible.

Paul Howell · Jul 28, 2025

dcy said:
There are two Arista paper developers. Are you talking about the one that just says Arista (white + purple bottle) or about the "Premium" one (black bottle)?

Last year I bought the plain Arista one but then it went bad in less than a year. Perhaps I could've done a better job to protect it, but I am not eager to try again.

Does not last long, I buy mine is the smaller bottles and use Wine Saver gas, not sure who makes the premium might a version of Kodak last paper developer.

GregY · Jul 28, 2025

dcy said:
Thanks!

D, on the Adox Neutol/ Rollei Compard ....back when it was Agfa, I used it as my standard....since it was available in brick & mortar shops was inexpensive, & gave good results. I never had it go bad on me

cjbecker · Jul 28, 2025

GregY said:
D, on the Adox Neutol/ Rollei Compard ....back when it was Agfa, I used it as my standard....since it was available in brick & mortar shops. I never had it go bad on me.

I’m really liking the Adox neutol eco developer. I really have not found any downsides too it yet. I left it in the tray for 36 hours and made a test print, it showed very little difference to fresh developer. Have only used the 1+4 ratio, going to test the 1+9 also. Tray life is much better then multigrade.

GregY · Jul 28, 2025

cjbecker said:
I’m really liking the Adox neutol eco developer. I really have not found any downsides too it yet. I left it in the tray for 36 hours and made a test print, it showed very little difference to fresh developer. Have only used the 1+4 ratio, going to test the 1+9 also. Tray life is much better then multigrade.

Back when....I always used the 1:9 dilution, as did the other photogs i knew

Paul Howell · Jul 28, 2025

Paul Howell said:
Does not last long, I buy mine is the smaller bottles and use Wine Saver gas, not sure who makes the premium might a version of Kodak last paper developer.

Looking at the premium I think it is Clayton Cold Tone paper developer.

dcy · Jul 28, 2025

Alan9940 said:
I had no complaints with the Eco Pro Paper developer other than it had a very short shelf life, once opened.

Alan9940 said:
Most likely my fault because I wasn't careful about keeping air out of the small bottle. If you decide on this developer, probably best to buy the larger quantity as others have suggested, then decant into full smaller bottles. Keep your "working bottle" free of oxygen as much as possible.

Yeah. This sounds like a good practice. Should probably do it regardless of the brand whenever I'm buying a larger quantity. --- I did not decant the Ilford MG that I bought, but it's only 500 mL and I'll be done with it soon.

GregY said:
D, on the Adox Neutol/ Rollei Compard ....back when it was Agfa, I used it as my standard....since it was available in brick & mortar shops was inexpensive, & gave good results. I never had it go bad on me

cjbecker said:
I’m really liking the Adox neutol eco developer. I really have not found any downsides too it yet. I left it in the tray for 36 hours and made a test print, it showed very little difference to fresh developer. Have only used the 1+4 ratio, going to test the 1+9 also. Tray life is much better then multigrade.

Good endorsements for Adox Neutol. Thank you so much. This is really useful.

Ron789 · Jul 28, 2025

I always used Ilford Multigrade developer but one year ago I switched to Moersch Separol, an eco developer that contains no hydroquinone and no caustic alkalis. Great! Working solution stays well in a bottle for several months, tray life is also very good.

SEPAROL | Wolfgang Moersch Photochemie

www.moersch-photochemie.de

dcy · Jul 28, 2025

The shelf life of Adox Neutol Eco was discussed in this forum in 2016, and there was a useful response from Adox:

"In short: A 1 Liter concentrate should not have gone bad after just one year but we also do not guarantee a longer timespan. The smaller bottle sizes have a shorter shelve life. We do tell this to our customers and make them aware of this. Usually it is not a problem because the customers buy the smaller amounts to use them up immediately (and this is what they are for).
Next to this we only produce them on demand almost every day to keep the chain short.
We constantly improve our products and thus we have upgraded our bottles in the past 2 times. The new bottles with the rounder neck as in the images on the website preserve the chemicals better (at the offset of a higher price) so the keeping time will benefit but we are not yet at the end of live of such a bottle so we do not have a clear guess yet.
I expect a one liter concentrate in the new bottles to last at least 24 months if stored correctly in an unopened original bottle."

GregY · Jul 28, 2025

dcy said:
The shelf life of Adox Neutol Eco was discussed in this forum in 2016, and there was a useful response from Adox:

"In short: A 1 Liter concentrate should not have gone bad after just one year but we also do not guarantee a longer timespan. The smaller bottle sizes have a shorter shelve life. We do tell this to our customers and make them aware of this. Usually it is not a problem because the customers buy the smaller amounts to use them up immediately (and this is what they are for).
Next to this we only produce them on demand almost every day to keep the chain short.
We constantly improve our products and thus we have upgraded our bottles in the past 2 times. The new bottles with the rounder neck as in the images on the website preserve the chemicals better (at the offset of a higher price) so the keeping time will benefit but we are not yet at the end of live of such a bottle so we do not have a clear guess yet.
I expect a one liter concentrate in the new bottles to last at least 24 months if stored correctly in an unopened original bottle."

D, @ 1+9 ......100ml @ time to make a liter (good 8x10 tray) amount....
Using it one shot... that's only one darkroom session/ month to come in under the year...

dcy · Jul 29, 2025

GregY said:
D, @ 1+9 ......100ml @ time to make a liter (good 8x10 tray) amount....
Using it one shot... that's only one darkroom session/ month to come in under the year...

Yeah. The 1L bottle will be gone in a lot less than a year, so the shelf life is plenty long.

dcy · Jul 29, 2025

Paul Howell said:
Looking at the premium I think it is Clayton Cold Tone paper developer.

I think I might try Arista Premium too (after I try Eco Pro). Despite the "premium" in the name, it is the cheapest paper developer available to me. Assuming a 1+9 dilution for both, the 2 quart bottle of Arista Premium costs *slightly* less per session than the 1 gallon bottle of Eco Pro.

dcy · Jul 30, 2025

Paul Howell said:
Looking at the premium I think it is Clayton Cold Tone paper developer.

I looked at the MSDS.

Without doubt "Arista Premium" is exactly Clayton P20.
I cannot figure out what the regular "Arista Liquid Paper Developer" is.

Milpool · Jul 30, 2025

dcy said:
I looked at the MSDS.

Without doubt "Arista Premium" is exactly Clayton P20.

I cannot figure out what the regular "Arista Liquid Paper Developer" is.

Indeed the SDS for Arista Premium seems to be the same as the Clayton P20 Plus SDS. This is different than the Clayton and or Arista Premium "Ultra Cold Tone".

Regular Arista Liquid Paper Developer seems to be a concentrated PQ developer.

It is not worth too much analysis. The majority of PQ / MQ developers are going to give virtually the same results with standard papers.

Has anyone tried Eco Pro Black and White Paper Developer?

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