Name the developers have you tried?

Paul Howell · May 9, 2021

Over the past 55 years high school, college Air Force, worked for the wires, freelanced, used many. In college we used a lot of GAF products as the lab instructor hatted Kodak, not because he hated the products but hated Kodak business practices. Also used Edwal 12 and 20 until it was taken off the market.. In the Air Force a lot of D76, DK50 and Polydal, used D19 for copy work. My current develper is Clayton F76+ but just got the chemistry to make a batch of Edwal 20, and I have kit to make up MCM 100. I also have Rodinal and Studendal on hand.

Ansco GAF/17
D76/ID11
D23
DK50
D19
Microdoal X
Polydol
Acufine
Diafine
Edwal 12
Edwal 20
Edwal FG7
Rodinal
Atomtol
Studiodal
MCM100
FX-2
HC110
DDX
TMax
Clayton F76
Clayton F90
Champlin 15
D7
Ilfosol S
Xtol

gone · May 9, 2021

With Foma 400 and Tri-X, I like D76 stock. You get these beautiful deep blacks. Not the sharpest developer, but the tonality is really, really good. It didn't work that great w/ HP5, but maybe I just prefer Tri-X. The downside to D76 is the short shelf life once it's mixed, so now I'm trying a couple of new developers. Other than that, it's been the occasional Rodinal, Acufine (too sharp), and Mic-X, a developer that worked nicely w/ Arista EDU 100. If all I could get was D76 or a clone, and Rodinal, it wouldn't bother me a bit.

RalphLambrecht · May 9, 2021

Dave Krueger said:
While being a fan of having one developer for everything, I recently started testing developers just to get a handle on what the differences are between some of the common favorites. I was just wondering what developers the folks here have tried in the course of their film developing experiences.

My main developers have been:

Microdol-X
Tmax RS
Xtol

In the distant past I have tried:

Acufine
Diafine
UFG
D76
Tmax (non RS)

I am currently experimenting with:

Pyrocat HD
FX-2
Rodinal

I no longer thing I can be satisfied with one developer, but I would like to settle on two.

Ultrfine
Rodinal
ID-11
D76
Xtol
and I settled on D761+1 for everything now.

cjbecker · May 9, 2021

In chronological order

Rodinal 1-50
Hc110 1-63
D76 1-1
Xtol 1-1 and replenished
Pf130 1-10 for about 8-10 years exclusively for both film and paper
d23 in testing stage at the moment.

Dave Krueger · May 9, 2021

Wow! What a blast from the past. Thanks for the recent responses.

SInce 2007, I have become a regular user of Rodinal and have now switched from Kodak film developers (Xtol, TMax, and occasional HC-110) to the Eco/Legacy Pro equivalents. I haven't used D-76 since the 70s, but I'm pretty sure I would be perfectly comfortable going back to it. Basically, I like to have a fine grain developer (Xtol-ish), a coarse grain developer (Rodinal), and occasionally an push developer (TMax-ish). I've recently experimented with Diafine again and could see myself using it again for some limited purposes. I haven't used Microdol-X (or equivalent) in ages mostly because of the film speed penalty.

Jonno85uk · May 10, 2021

ID11
FD10
Ilfosol S,
Some Jessops stuff,
Xtol,
Ilfotec HC
Ilfotec DDX
Rodinal (Agfa/R09)

I used to use Rodinal for the longest time mostly because I had access to a darkroom.
I use the last 4 nowadays but mostly Xtol.

For prints I only ever used PD5.

juan · May 10, 2021

Can I remember them all?
Ansco Universal Developer (still looking for definitive evidence of what this was)
D-76
Farmer’s divided D-76
D-23
DD-23
Microdol
Microdol X
Beseler BS-1
Beseler BS-2
ID-11
Edwal 20
Rodinal
Ansco 130
Clayton F-76
HC-110
A Mortensen glycin developer
Hubl paste
ABC Pyro
Pyrocat-HD and PC
510 Pyro
Hypercat
Crawley’s FX-2

I’m sure there were others

Ernst-Jan · May 10, 2021

I developed my first roll of film in january 2019, and made my first print last december, so I am quite a rookie compared to some here

So far I used for film: Adox APH-09 (Rodinal to a recipe from the 50's), ID-11, Perceptol and Ilfosol 3. Overal, I like Ilfosol 3 the most, but the disadvantage of it is the limited shelf life, you should use it within a couple of months.
In some times of the year when you don't shoot that much, it is not very convenient. Second most used is ID-11 in a 1+3 dilution.

Perceptol I don't use anymore, the Rodinal is good to have as a back up. I bough some Leverkusen made APX100 and APX400, which I will be developing in it.
I also have a bag of Adox XT-3 laying around, which I will give a try when the Ilfosol is finished.

I only did a couple of printing session, only have used Adox MCC so far.

foc · May 10, 2021

Ernst-Jan said:
I like Ilfosol 3 the most, but the disadvantage of it is the limited shelf life, you should use it within a couple of months.

I am a big fan of Ilfosol 3 and have used it for years. I never had a problem with shelf life but I do decant the 500ml into 100ml brown glass bottles.
During the Covid pandemic, I hadn't developed any film until last week.
I open a full bottle of the decanted 100ml and I had dated the decanting onto a label on the bottle.
It was 8th Jan 2020 so that was 17 months. No change in colour and it worked perfectly.

Donald Qualls · May 10, 2021

Well, that's a bit of a list...

D-76 and Dektol that first summer at camp (1969), then a Tri-Chem pack (effectively Dektol, powder stop, powder fixer) for film the next year.

Then off to high school, D-76 and Dektol in the high school darkroom (and E-4 near the end of the photography class), and HC-110 (for both film and prints) in my dorm room.

In college, they never really said, but I'm pretty sure it was D-76 and Dektol.

To misquote The Princess Bride, "What with one thing and another, twenty-seven years passed," and HC-110 again (wasn't printing at that time), Diafine, a little experimentation with Caffenol, and invented what's now called FF No.1 monobath (HC-110 and rapid fixer mix).

Moved to North Carolina, and HC-110, Parodinal, D-23, H&W Control, Caffenol variants, Diafine, plus Dektol for prints. Also Flexicolor and Dignan 2-bath C-41, negatives only. Then my darkroom was closed because the household expanded and others needed the bathroom to be a bathroom all the time.

Moved again, got an actual darkroom last year, and it's been Df96, then Xtol, and a little Dektol (for film, this time, still getting my enlarging setup together) (plus Cs41, then Flexicolor). Just got a couple bags of EcoPro, a direct replacement for Xtol.

Ernst-Jan · May 10, 2021

foc said:
I am a big fan of Ilfosol 3 and have used it for years. I never had a problem with shelf life but I do decant the 500ml into 100ml brown glass bottles.
During the Covid pandemic, I hadn't developed any film until last week.
I open a full bottle of the decanted 100ml and I had dated the decanting onto a label on the bottle.
It was 8th Jan 2020 so that was 17 months. No change in colour and it worked perfectly.

After use, I always spray some butane in the (original) bottle, after 5 months it still worked but then it was finished.
But the warn for it with a reason, so I prefer to go through ik rather fast. In a period I shoot less, I will use ID-11.

Andrew O'Neill · May 10, 2021

First developer was by Fujifilm. Then D76, HC110 at various dilutions, Xtol at various dilutions, D-23 at various dilutions, two-bath, FX2, Rodinol, PMK, Rollo Pyro, Pyrocat-HD (used this one the longest), Obsidian Aqua, DK50, Blazinol, Neofin Blue, Ilfosol, Adotech IV, Caffenol... I probably missed some.

removed account4 · May 10, 2021

Donald Qualls said:
and invented what's now called FF No.1 monobath (HC-110 and rapid fixer mix).

Hi Donald

Is this the same mono bath called "famous format". that is being used to developer dry plate ambrotypes and silver gelatin tintypes ? or a different Mono Bath ?

Donald Qualls · May 10, 2021

jnantz said:
Is this the same mono bath called "famous format". that is being used to developer dry plate ambrotypes and silver gelatin tintypes ? or a different Mono Bath ?

From what I understand, this is the same monobath first sold by New55 as R1, and renamed to FF No. 1 after New55 closed and Famous Format replaced them. HC-110 Dilution A, made up with Ilford Rapid Fixer, a little ammonium hydroxide to counter the acidity of the fixer, and water to finish up the volume. I don't have the full recipe handy, but it's on my home computer.

removed account4 · May 10, 2021

that's fantastic .. !
thanks for sharing -
if you decide to start coating your own black glass dry plates
you should see how well it works... ( as a SVGambrotype developer )
I hate to ask you to divulge trade secrets but if you get a chance can you
put your recipe / formula in the resources section here ?
I've never used HC110 and it sounds like a great reason to pick up a bottle
PLUS im kind of fond of the idea of the monobath. ...

Donald Qualls · May 10, 2021

jnantz said:
I hate to ask you to divulge trade secrets but if you get a chance can you
put your recipe / formula in the resources section here ?

I made it public originally, don't have any kind of patent on it, and never had (or really wanted) a dime from New55. If you search for "HC-110 monobath" on photo.net, you'll find my original post thread (from 2003) where I literally threw it together and tested it. If you don't find it, I'll try to remember to post it up here in the resources.

R.Gould · May 10, 2021

Over the years I have used so many developers it would take a page to list them all just a few, First was Johnson's of Hendon's Unitol, fine grain developer' also May and Bakers Promicrol, Glysin based developer, (Nothing like todays Promicrol from Champion) Original Rodinal, from Agfa, in glass bottles, APHo9, before Adox took to making it, in fact before modern Adox existed Ilford Microphen, which I used for pushing Tmax 100 to 400, since my first bottle of Rodinal I have always used Rodinal in one form or another, and my latest developer, which sits beside Rodinal is ID11 at stock, I have missed out a lot as many have either been unremarkable, or used once and never again, or I simply can't remember, many long gone and forgeten, for instance in their day Johnsons of Henden was the biggest photogarphic company in Europe, you name it and they made it, including the biggest range of chemistry bar none, even by todays standard, I also remember their Monobath worked a treat, I have tried it a good few times, also the universal deeveloper they made I used a lot, ( saved a lot of money when money was tight in the late fifties/early sixties, and I must, at one time or another, tried them all, plus Paterson developers, before the Aculux Ect, tried the lot, Acukux, in the 70's, a lot ,, but now just down to the 2, RO9 One shot and ID11

Pentode · May 10, 2021

My main developers are:
D-76 1:1
Rodinal 1+50
HC-110 dilution H (1+63)

I have used in the past:
Ilford Universal Film Developer
Xtol
ID-11
D-19

I sometimes use or am experimenting with:
Caffenol C-L
Perceptol 1:1
D-23 1:1
Beutler (soon to be added to the main developers list)

Juan Valdenebro · May 10, 2021

ID-11
Rodinal
Microphen
Pyro (several)
Microdol-X
D-76
TMaxDev
DD-X
Perceptol
Xtol
FX-39

All I need? D-76, Perceptol, and FX-39.
Only one? D-76.

Sirius Glass · May 10, 2021

XTOL stock
replenished XTOL
pyro

Don_ih · May 10, 2021

Sirius Glass said:
XTOL stock
replenished XTOL
pyro

No d76? How is that even possible?

Sirius Glass · May 11, 2021

Don Heisz said:
No d76? How is that even possible?

Very easy. I try Microdol-X many decades ago.

Fin77 · May 12, 2021

Not a long list, but somehow found my preferred developers fast and then stick with them (read, play safe).

XTOL (my old go to but exchanged to Adox XT-3 which is way better in my eyes)
Adox XT-3 with DELTA 100 and TMAX 100 (for high contrast when highlights are around zone VIII or higher = N-x development)
Adox FX-39 with DELTA 100 and TMAX 100 (my go to for normal or low contrast)
Kodak HC-110 with HP5+ (my go to but only manual development. I really like grain, hope Adox would have a developer which gives same result)
Kodak D-76 (not using anymore)
Ilford DDX (using for pushing, but little too expensive to have my go to for normal development)

A bit boring list when comparing others and maybe somebody can see a tendency to move away from Kodak.

removed account4 · May 12, 2021

Dave Krueger said:
Wow! What a blast from the past. Thanks for the recent responses.

I was reading olde apug the other day and was feeling all warm and fuzzy.

my list really hasn't changed
sprint - film
dk50
gaf universal
tmax
tmax rs
xtol
ansco130
caffenol-c ( homebrew)
caffenol-c+ansco130 (homebrew) ( c-130 )
d72/dektol
selectol
sprint - print
ansco130

but I have used d72 with film ( previously I had only used it for prints )
and I mix it with my caffenol ( made with Sumatra beans I roast myself ) and sometimes call it Dcaffenol ...
I have used the caf130 / Dcaffenol from a vat that has a gallon of developer in it for 6 months
unreplenished every film I can find ( color or b/w ) for both film and prints
I also split process my film in either ansco130 or d72 1:10. but instead of the full 10 mins
I do it for 5 mins and agitate normally, and then put the film in the caffenol for the remaining 5 mins agitating continuously...
sort of like D23 but not really. ..
and for prints I start it in paper developer and as soon as the image appears I develop the rest of the print in caffenol. ...
YMMV

takilmaboxer · May 15, 2021

At first, UFG. That's what the studio carried. (5 years)
Then, Microdol, Panatomic-x in Microdol 1:3! I hated grain in 120. (10 years).
Then, FG-7 for a couple decades. D-76 when FG-7 went defunct. (25 years). FG-7 with 15% sulphite was similar to D-76.
Occasional D-23.
Nowadays I'm experimenting, I'll be darned if I'm giving $ to Sino Promise. More D-23, now trying Clayton F76. One shot is an appealing method.
Tried Rodinol, hated it.
Had a job once doing photo. We used HC-110. Looked just like D-76 to me.
In the end I just might go back to D-76, either home brew or a commercial clone. The formula is pretty simple.

Name the developers have you tried?

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