I thought I'd relate some intitial experiences I'm having with Ryuji's recommended developers. Only in the last year I've been mixing chemicals from bulk and have been having a great time experimenting. Everything I've dealt with has been successful to some degree (various TEA concoctions, pyro based, Mytol/Xtol style, WD2D, etc). I'm afraid my limited time has me doing this on instinct more than scientific method but it has been as much fun in the darkroom as I've ever had. If these projects were leaving me with mediocre results, it wouldn't be so much fun so the general success I'm seeing has helped make it enjoyable.
For the last couple of months, I've been using Ryuji's DS film and paper developers. The first film I pulled from the soup looked alright, but didn't excite initially. When I then viewed with the loupe, I was pleased with the general "edgieness" of eyelashes, etc. When I started printing and with multiple materials I realized that I might have found a good, new friend in the darkroom. The DS-14 paper developer seemed to be bringing everthing out of the MG FB and RC papers I've been primarily using. It also seemed to work beautifully with "heritage" stuff like Brilliant and Brovira that I needed for a couple of things. The film developer I've settled into is his DS-10. I'm getting glowing skin tones, solid shadow detail and reasonably controlled highlights. Film used with it so far is PanF+, FP4+, HP5+, Delta 400, Acros and Neopan 400) This has been in 35mm and 645/6X7. I don't see any discussion of the chemicals in here and thought I'd see if anyone else has experience with his formulas? Dimezone-S seems to take the roll of phenidone in his formulas and salicylic acid is used. The Dimezone-S seems to not be commonly available from common sources but TechChem stocks it. Pharmacists use the salicylic acid (aspirin) for preparing salves, etc and mine just gave a decent quantity to me. I've rambled enough, but would like to hear from others who have tried these and maybe if you've looked them over, some of this discussion might give you the nudge to try them out.
For the last couple of months, I've been using Ryuji's DS film and paper developers. The first film I pulled from the soup looked alright, but didn't excite initially. When I then viewed with the loupe, I was pleased with the general "edgieness" of eyelashes, etc. When I started printing and with multiple materials I realized that I might have found a good, new friend in the darkroom. The DS-14 paper developer seemed to be bringing everthing out of the MG FB and RC papers I've been primarily using. It also seemed to work beautifully with "heritage" stuff like Brilliant and Brovira that I needed for a couple of things. The film developer I've settled into is his DS-10. I'm getting glowing skin tones, solid shadow detail and reasonably controlled highlights. Film used with it so far is PanF+, FP4+, HP5+, Delta 400, Acros and Neopan 400) This has been in 35mm and 645/6X7. I don't see any discussion of the chemicals in here and thought I'd see if anyone else has experience with his formulas? Dimezone-S seems to take the roll of phenidone in his formulas and salicylic acid is used. The Dimezone-S seems to not be commonly available from common sources but TechChem stocks it. Pharmacists use the salicylic acid (aspirin) for preparing salves, etc and mine just gave a decent quantity to me. I've rambled enough, but would like to hear from others who have tried these and maybe if you've looked them over, some of this discussion might give you the nudge to try them out.
