My First Impression of Xtol

If you are to compare it to Rodinal, then yes, you will indeed get better shadow detail. Simply put, Rodinal is not exactly known for delivering full emulsion speed from any film, at least not without driving the contrast up higher than most people prefer. When I want to use Rodinal for a specific purpose, I will always give a more generous exposure than I would if I plan to use XTOL. But will XTOL deliver up to 2/3 stop more speed than say D-76 or something similar? No, I haven't seen that. The best I've seen is about 1/3 stop, and that can be pretty hard to see in a lot of cases.

It depends on what films you are using. I found my personal EI's were the same with Rodinal (1+50) & Xtol (replenished) with APX100 (at 100 EI) and Tmax100 (at 50 EI).

Ian

I find Xtol 1+2 gives the same speed as DDX with every film I have used it with and easily 1/2 a stop more than D76 1+1. The only films I have used I dont like this developer with are APX100 and Foma 100 because ths grain vanishes almost entirely and the images lack bite. Its very peculiar how these films go so smooooooth in Xtol. I mix mine with rodinal with these films and get lovely negs with just enough bite.

APX100 was the finest grained of all the 100 EI emulsions, I used to use it in 35mm through to 5x4 and would agree how smooth the tonality was because of the fine grain in Xtol and also Rodinal. The lack of bite reminds me of Geoffrey Crawley's definition/resolution tests with FX-1, his high definition developer, with Adox.EFKE KB14 (now CHS 25) where the slightest movement/camera shake negated any improvements in definition, grain tends to mask slight issues.

Ian