Honest Talk About the Various B&W Developer Choices

[Paul Howell]

Hello,

I love this site because of the passion people have for traditional film processes. I imagine there are many people who have shot 10's to 100's times more film than myself.

Nevertheless, I get the feeling based on reading many threads here and on photo.net over the years, and based on modest experience with various developers myself - that convienence is the number one factor that people use when selecting their developer for B&W film.

I feel the pyro developers (Wimberly, Pyrocat, PMK, etc) are superior in what they do (with traditional silver emulsions, not with T Grain films) in normal to high contrast situations.

But the liquid/syrup developers are very convienent (HC 100, Rodinal, Diafine) and that's why we use them instaed.

agree or disagree?

Yes and no, I mix a number of developers in bulk, currently the ANSCO version of D 76, when I plan on many rolls or sheets. But there are time when I dont have fresh developers and I have only a roll or 2 so I use HC 110, DDX, or Edwal FG 7. I would not say that a pyro developer is superior, problems with staining, too gainy for 35mm for my taste, but there are times that I need a compensating developer. One size does not fit all, and at times convienene wins.

 

[Pioneer]

In the beginning I used Arista Premium products from Freestyle because it was inexpensive. I am now working almost exclusively with Rodinal for 3 reasons.
1. I buy in bulk and Rodinal lasts for a very, very, very, very long time. Arista Premium will begin to lose potency after a year.
2. I can find a Rodinal recipe for just about every film I use. This was not true for Arista Premium.
3. Rodinal is pretty flexible and I can change the dilution and the times as I need.

Now I'm pretty sure that there are other developers out there that are just as good, maybe even better, but I am just now getting to the point where I understand what Rodinal will do. I really do not want to start that whole process over again when I am beginning to learn what I am actually doing.

 

[removed account4]

i primarily use 1 developer
caffenolc + a shot glass of ansco 130.
it is the only developer i have used in the last 6 years
and before that for 6+ years it was dilute ansco 130.
the developer gives me film i am used to and it is easy to make.
it processes all the film i use with ease, color and black /white
works with prints, and my film prints ez and scans ez, i couldn't ask for anything better.

i am not chasing magic bullets like most people.

 

[RPC]

For convenience and quality, I would go with D-23 and Ansco 130.

D-23 is easy to mix (two chemicals), is similar in quality to D-76, but does not suffer from activity changes, and is long lasting.

Ansco 130 can be used for both film and paper, with great results for both, and is long lasting..

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

I only use three. Xtol, rodinal, and d76. I vary the dilutions for the look I want.

Though I can kinda see the allure of rodinal stand development. I do it for the shadows and grain, but being able to multitask is nice. For instance I developed 13 rolls in one session with it today, while teaching a class, shooting out emails, and setting up a computer for movie projection today. It's handy and serves its purpose. Earlier this week my other students developed with d76, which would be impossible if it was only me.

 

[BradS]

Convenience is nice to hve but really, finding a film and developer combo that produce consistent, predictable results is more important to me. I don't have time and money to waste on materials that are unreliable.

 

[Ian Grant]

Convenience means easy and wuick to make up with minimal fuss, to me. Over the past 26 years I've only used 3 negative developers , initially Rodinal and Xtol but more recently Pyrocat HD.

For many yearsv I used replenished developers, Microphen, D76 and later Adox Borax MQ this is the most convenient way of working, the developer is always ready for use. Volumes needn't be large I prefer a minimum of 2.5 litres working solution and used large commercial deep tanks for over a decade at work, this is the most economical and consistent way of working. When Xtol was released I switched, this is even better for small scale replenishment as it's replenished with fresh developer rather than a dedicated replenisher. I tended to process my personal work in Rodinal and commercial work in Xtol but both gave excellent results.

However convenience has other connatations and it was more convenient to take Pyrocat HD with me to Turkey, a small volume of concentrate processes a lot of film, for travelling I make Part A double strenght and buy the carbonate for Part B locally.

I've stopped using Xtol because travelling made it impractical, leaving the working solution untouched for months isn't ideal although I kept my last batch going for over 18 months and it was still OK the last batch of 20 films processed.

I've now switched totally to Pyrocat HD it gives me superb negatives with modern T grain/tabular films as well as older emulsions like HP5, EFKE 25 and Fomapan 100.200, it's like Rodinal on steroids, negatives print easily they also scan well.

Ian