Liquid replacement for Xtol

eclarke · Jan 21, 2006

Hi All,
Any suggestions for a liquid alternative to Xtol? Developing Tmax 100 and Acros..Thanks..Evan Clarke

gainer · Jan 21, 2006

You can make your own. Otherwise, I don't know. To get long storage life in a liquid stock with ascorbic or isoascorbic acid probably requires an organic solvent like a glycol that doesn't ionize until you add water. If you can get an organic "sulfur dioxide complex" such as is in HC110, you might get a satisfactory single solution stock that simulates Xtol. The article by Jordan Wosnick that is listed in the sidebar tells how to do it in two solutions, one in glycol, the other in water.

fhovie · Jan 21, 2006

PC-TEA - pretty close - not quite as smooth but similar

John Bragg · Jan 22, 2006

Try Ilfosol-s at least once.... The sharpest dev in the Ilford inventory, according to David Carper (Ilford technical Boffin). J.B.

Harry Lime · Jan 22, 2006

How about Ilford DD-X?

Schlapp · Jan 22, 2006

Paterson FX-50. excellent stuff

Jack Lusted · Jan 22, 2006

Or Formadon Excel.
Retro-photographic says, 'Modern, sharp working developer formulated without hydroquinone. Very similar to Kodak Xtol.
I expect your side of the pond you will find it stocked by J + C Photo.

Jack

Amund · Jan 22, 2006

If XTOL is what you want, why don`t stick with it?

Wayne · Jan 22, 2006

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and guess that its because XTOL doesnt come as liquid.

eclarke · Jan 22, 2006

blix@broadpark.no said:
If XTOL is what you want, why don`t stick with it?

I go fairly long times between developing sessions and would like to be able to mix a smaller amount of developer from concentrate. I use a JOBO. Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions..Evan Clarke

Ronald Moravec · Jan 22, 2006

Someone on photo net did a very compresensive study 2 or 3 years back. A densitometer was used to measure the results. D76, Xtol, D76h were all tested over 6 months. The most uniform results were with D76, Xtol a close second, D76h a total flop after 6 weeks.

All were kept in full bottles and used one time.

I keep D76in small one time use bottles for 6 months with no ill effects. Even a week in a half full bottle changes results reguardless of what Kodak says.

Gerald Koch · Jan 23, 2006

eclarke said:
I go fairly long times between developing sessions and would like to be able to mix a smaller amount of developer from concentrate. I use a JOBO. Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions..Evan Clarke

If you go for long periods between developing sessions then ascorbate based developers are not a particularly choice. While Xtol has received the most notoriety in the matter of sudden death all ascorbate developer have the same problem. FX-50 being particularly bad in this respect. For the occasional user a concentrate with a long shelf life like HC-110 or Rodinal would be a better choice.

Fintan · Jan 23, 2006

Gerald Koch said:
For the occasional user a concentrate with a long shelf life like HC-110 or Rodinal would be a better choice.

But for Jobo use, I thought Rodinal wasnt good for rotary developing? Maybe I'm wrong. :confused:

srs5694 · Jan 23, 2006

eclarke said:
I go fairly long times between developing sessions and would like to be able to mix a smaller amount of developer from concentrate. I use a JOBO.

The important followup question is what you like about XTOL. If it's the (relatively) benign chemistry, then your best bet may be to start mixing your own from scratch. You could mix up Mytol (which is very similar to XTOL) in small batches or you could use PC-TEA or PC-Glycol (which are different in bigger ways but should store well in solution). If you don't particularly care about the chemistry, but like the results you get with XTOL, then there may be some MQ, PQ, or other developer that comes in liquid form and stores well that would suit your purposes, but it'd help if you'd say precisely what you like about XTOL. If you're only interested in long-term storage, then others' suggestions of Rodinal or HC-110 are good ones. Note that Rodinal is almost an "anti-XTOL" in many of its characteristics; for instance, it produces much bigger grain than does XTOL and tends to lose a bit of film speed compared to what XTOL produces.

Liquid replacement for Xtol

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