New Moersch Eco Film Developer - first results?

[cmo]

Recently a new developer became available, it's called Moersch Eco film developer. It seems to be a descendant of the Microdol-X/Perceptol family and somewhat related to a developer named CG512 (also known as Rollei RLS), but environmentally acceptable.

By now I only saw one review and only APX 100 was tested; I heard a few good things from a few early users. It seems to be only for low to medium speed films with an emphasis on low grain and very high sharpness at the cost of film speed. Did any of you try that new soup?

Here is a link to the only review I found, in german language only.

 

[wclark5179]

Here is what Freestyle stocks (Click on Moersch in the search area):

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/c301-Black-and-White-Chemicals-Developers

 

[cmo]

E.g. they don't have it yet. In that case I can't expect many replies here

 

[cmo]

E.g. they don't have it yet. In that case I can't expect many replies here

 

[GeorgK]

I have tried it so far with APX100, Tmax100, Tmax400-2 and Acros - not systematically, but I know these films quite well, and try to make some general assumptions (purely visual) based on my experiences.
First, it is not a super-fine grain developer, but "fine grain" (and I am not aware of any actual film developer that is not called at least "fine grain"). It ist defintively not in the league of Perceptol, Xtol or A49 regarding grain. I would say that the results of Mr. Böhr with APX100 are not typical. I ordered the developer based on this this, and I have to say that I do not like APX100 in EFD. The grain is well defined and even, but not as fine as in the classic solvent-type developers.

It does give full speed (or maximum 1/3 less; the Moersch datasheets are very detailled and reliable), and where it really shines is the exceptional definition it can produce. I developed an Acros 100 (120 format) and the prints really look fabulous with tremendous detail and a very stong "3-D" impression. I also did a Tmax 100 (35mm) in EFD, and while the tones where very nice, I did not like the grain in a 20x30 print (especially in the brighter greys). It was not bad, but if one uses Tmax100, he is usually looking for grain-free 35mm prints.

In short, it should be a really fantastic developer for 100ASA films in medium format, it can be great in 35mm and slow films if you can somehow compromise on the grain (again: it is not bad, but it's not Microdol or Xtol), but I would not recommend it for faster films (except you want the "high-definition, defined-grain" look).

IIRC, in the beginning it is only available from the Moersch online shop. I guess Mr. Moersch is testing the market before sending out bigger batches to other distributers.

Georg