Is Sprint Quicksilver developer basically a school developer?

gone · Aug 1, 2021

I ran out of paper developer and bought 1 ltr of this a week ago. It's colder than Dektol, actually more neutral to my eyes. That probably depends on the paper. I'm using it w/ Ilford MGRC Glossy and no complaints, the prints look really nice and the developer is dirt cheap. 1 ltr liquid makes 10 liters working solution at 1:9, which is pretty standard. After yesterday's printing it was poured into jars, and I used it just now to make more prints.

Here's the weird thing: the prints were fully developed today in 1 minute, just like yesterday when I first opened and used it. So one more time I've saved it and will see how it tests tomorrow. As it stands, there's 7, 11x14 prints from yesterday, plus 6 today, and there's still half the contents in the bottle that hasn't been touched. At a minimum, that's 26, 11x14 prints over a 4 day span.

Most of the information I can find on this developer seems to come from people who used it in a photography class, or bought it for same. But it looks like a perfectly good developer for anyone that doesn't want warm tone. The big plus for me is, if I want to end a print session early, it can picked back up the next day, or maybe even the day after that.

RalphLambrecht · Aug 1, 2021

momus said:
I ran out of paper developer and bought 1 ltr of this a week ago. It's colder than Dektol, actually more neutral to my eyes. That probably depends on the paper. I'm using it w/ Ilford MGRC Glossy and no complaints, the prints look really nice and the developer is dirt cheap. 1 ltr liquid makes 10 liters working solution at 1:9, which is pretty standard. After yesterday's printing it was poured into jars, and I used it just now to make more prints.

Here's the weird thing: the prints were fully developed today in 1 minute, just like yesterday when I first opened and used it. So one more time I've saved it and will see how it tests tomorrow. As it stands, there's 7, 11x14 prints from yesterday, plus 6 today, and there's still half the contents in the bottle that hasn't been touched. At a minimum, that's 26, 11x14 prints over a 4 day span.

Most of the information I can find on this developer seems to come from people who used it in a photography class, or bought it for same. But it looks like a perfectly good developer for anyone that doesn't want warm tone. The big plus for me is, if I want to end a print session early, it can picked back up the next day, or maybe even the day after that.

RalphLambrecht · Aug 1, 2021

it's good to find what one likes

MattKing · Aug 1, 2021

Anything designed for the school market will be reasonable in cost, easy to use, and most likely easy to store and re-use.
Nothing in those criteria would mean it isn't good.
It might also be a developer that doesn't cause a lot of problem with allergenic reactions - some are better that way than others.

gone · Aug 1, 2021

Now that the prints have dried, I think it may lean more toward somewhat cold, or coldish. I'd have to place it against a print that was made in Dektol or Liquidol, it's impossible to tell 100% w/ the lighting in my place. I found a thread on this developer (after I bought it, and after this was posted, of course), and others said pretty much the same thing. Good developer if you don't need warm prints, very cost effective, and it has been around for quite some time. It flew under my radar, probably because it isn't sold by Freestyle. Looks like the big stores in NY sell it, probably by the barrel to schools.

Freestyle does have something called Marathon. Maybe that's their house name for Sprint, like Arista is their house brand of Foma films.

removed account4 · Aug 1, 2021

momus said:
Freestyle does have something called Marathon. Maybe that's their house name for Sprint,

its not the same thing.

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...cksilver-print-developer.185552/#post-2445562
used it for years it is a great developer easy and works well. The rest of their chemistry is at least as good as anything else you can buy, or better. its idiot proof.
The guy who said started sprint, Paul Krott is a bit of a legend around here .. was a RISD. graduate taught there and was also extremely generous even to strangers…. Back when TMAX film developer came out even people at Kodak’s pro line had no clue between the 2 versions. It was suggested I use TMAX with the film with the same name ( made for eachother ) by a colleague so I called KODAK to learn which to use with sheet film ( it’s RS incase you didn't know ) they didn’t know and suggested I use the other one ... anyways, bunch of film went through it ( tanks and hangers ) as tests subjects and things seemed OK at first until I had a project to do, and all the film ended up with dichroic fog ... because some RIT grad student at Kodak told me the wrong developer to use and then was canned. folks at Kodak had no clue what it was or how to get rid of it, they said "throw away the film and re shoot it " impossibility .. Paul Krott had me mix farmer's reducer ( Kodak's own product ) and strip the film of the fog. I didn't even know him, just called him at the suggestion of a teacher I had... I'm a devotee of their chemistry.
if you like their print developer try the rest of their chemistry. I use their fixer ( have never used anything else for 40+ years) if I didn't have 40lbs of coffee in my garage I roast and use for caffenol, I'd only use sprint chemistry for everything ... eventually when I run out of caffenol I guess .. I am almost out of it, I started with 100lbs ...

you can buy it directly from sprint off their website by the Lsleeve, gallon or 5gallon cube.

removed account4 · Aug 3, 2021

michael_r said:
Block stop bath has the distinction of being the only commercially available (as far as I know) “ideal” stop bath. Sprint is pretty cool stuff.

yea. .. the people who run the place are super nice too. for their film developer, they have data on every film made/that you can get/could get, and the processing was done by a real person who knows what they are doing, not cousin mickey who uploads what he thinks he did to the mdc ...

Alan9940 · Aug 3, 2021

michael_r said:
Block stop bath has the distinction of being the only commercially available (as far as I know) “ideal” stop bath. Sprint is pretty cool stuff.

And, I like the hint of vanilla when I'm printing. Some others don't seem to like it, but I dislike the smell of acidic acid for hours on end.

Dusty Negative · Aug 3, 2021

momus said:
Now that the prints have dried, I think it may lean more toward somewhat cold, or coldish. I'd have to place it against a print that was made in Dektol or Liquidol, it's impossible to tell 100% w/ the lighting in my place. I found a thread on this developer (after I bought it, and after this was posted, of course), and others said pretty much the same thing. Good developer if you don't need warm prints, very cost effective, and it has been around for quite some time. It flew under my radar, probably because it isn't sold by Freestyle. Looks like the big stores in NY sell it, probably by the barrel to schools.

Freestyle does have something called Marathon. Maybe that's their house name for Sprint, like Arista is their house brand of Foma films.

Momus, I look forward to hearing your final verdict on how a dried Sprint print (Dr. Seuss anyone?) compares tonally to a Dektol demo (not so much Dr. Seuss).

I’ve been using Sprint for a while now, but am still relatively new in the darkroom and can only really say it’s colder than Ilford Warmtone, which should be rather obvious based on titles alone.

NortheastPhotographic · Aug 3, 2021

I don't use Sprint now but I did in photo classes in college. It's funny how there is a psychological effect of something being just for beginners and thus can't be good. The first roll of film and developer combo I used was D76 and HP5+. I moved away from that as quickly as I could to try Acutol and FP4+, Rodinal, pyro...the list goes on. Turns out HP5+ and D76 is a wonderful combination that is only perhaps beat out by HP5+ and replenished XTol. If XTol is hard to get I don't hesitate to mix and enjoy D76.

The Naked Photographer on Youtube has been doing paper developer comparisons and some of these psychological biases are revealed there. I.E. there was basically no difference between Dektol and Ansco 130 at least when it came to print quality... That being said, I use PF 130 all the time and consider glycin to be my magic pixie dust. It's really best to just stop doing comparative tests I think.

pentaxuser · Aug 3, 2021

momus said:
Now that the prints have dried, I think it may lean more toward somewhat cold, or coldish. I'd have to place it against a print that was made in Dektol or Liquidol, it's impossible to tell 100% w/ the lighting in my place. I found a thread on this developer (after I bought it, and after this was posted, of course), and others said pretty much the same thing. Good developer if you don't need warm prints, very cost effective, and it has been around for quite some time. It flew under my radar, probably because it isn't sold by Freestyle. Looks like the big stores in NY sell it, probably by the barrel to schools.

Freestyle does have something called Marathon. Maybe that's their house name for Sprint, like Arista is their house brand of Foma films.

This made me laugh. Marathon a house name for Sprint. Someone at Arista with my sense of humour.

pentaxuser

MTGseattle · Oct 17, 2021

I find it funny too how we can perceive a beginner or "student" focused thing to be somehow inferior. I spent a summer in Maine back in '99 and the chemicals on tap were Sprint. I was a "broke student" at the time, and certainly wasn't about to somehow order and store my own personal stash of different chemistry. My big take away from the summer was the added step(to me at the time) of a pre-wash, and that the Sprint chemistry gave me perfectly fine results. In the last 6-7 years, I've processed only about 6 of my own rolls of 120 (I completely killed two of them), and sent some rolls out for processing. I've decided to get back on the horse though, and I loaded some 4x5 film holders the other night, and went and scooped up some chemistry and a couple of graduates today. If I could have grabbed Sprint off of the shelf today, I would have, but for this first foray back into my own processing I've gone with Ilford.

gone · Oct 17, 2021

If only lenses worked like this. You usually get what you pay for on those, but not w/ darkroom chemicals, thank goodness.

Someone here suggested that I make D23 from scratch, since it was a simple to make developer, and it worked well on many papers and films. You got a good bang for your buck. But the Sprint has been so consistent, and has worked so well for long printing sessions, it's my standard paper developer now.

After one day's print session, just bottle it back up or cover the trays w/ saran wrap and it's good for many more prints the next day. Very economical, since I like to use big trays for paper developing, and 11x14 prints use up a fair amount of chemistry, especially the FB papers.

mshchem · Oct 18, 2021

NortheastPhotographic said:
I don't use Sprint now but I did in photo classes in college. It's funny how there is a psychological effect of something being just for beginners and thus can't be good. The first roll of film and developer combo I used was D76 and HP5+. I moved away from that as quickly as I could to try Acutol and FP4+, Rodinal, pyro...the list goes on. Turns out HP5+ and D76 is a wonderful combination that is only perhaps beat out by HP5+ and replenished XTol. If XTol is hard to get I don't hesitate to mix and enjoy D76.

The Naked Photographer on Youtube has been doing paper developer comparisons and some of these psychological biases are revealed there. I.E. there was basically no difference between Dektol and Ansco 130 at least when it came to print quality... That being said, I use PF 130 all the time and consider glycin to be my magic pixie dust. It's really best to just stop doing comparative tests I think.

Glycin print developers are magical. However I've been using Bromophen for the last 15 years, no Glycin though.

removed account4 · Oct 18, 2021

In the last month I bought 5L of sprint print dev and another 1L of film dev. I will be buying more fix soon ( I have some left in the cube still )
Thanks momus

Dusty Negative · Mar 22, 2022

momus said:
Now that the prints have dried, I think it may lean more toward somewhat cold, or coldish. I'd have to place it against a print that was made in Dektol or Liquidol, it's impossible to tell 100% w/ the lighting in my place. I found a thread on this developer (after I bought it, and after this was posted, of course), and others said pretty much the same thing. Good developer if you don't need warm prints, very cost effective, and it has been around for quite some time. It flew under my radar, probably because it isn't sold by Freestyle. Looks like the big stores in NY sell it, probably by the barrel to schools.

Freestyle does have something called Marathon. Maybe that's their house name for Sprint, like Arista is their house brand of Foma films.

Momus, did you ever do that side-by-side comparison?

I just did a side-by-side of Sprint vs Ilford Warmtone developer on Fomatone. The prints are drying right now, but…man, I’m not seeing much of a difference after selenium toning.

Is Sprint Quicksilver developer basically a school developer?

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