whats up with this 130 stuff? ABC Rollo? Or just D76??????

Ok, here is are my questions, thoughts, concerns.......I'm back in the darkroom after a hiatus of 5 years. My damn wife got laid off and now I have to go back to work. Life sucks!!

Everyone seems to have a favorite developer for film and paper. I've probably developed over 10,000 rolls of BW over the past 30 yrs. I've used d76, Microdol X, c76, ID11, Diafine, Acufine, Xtol, a few rolls with ABC Rollo Pyro, perhaps one roll with Rodinal. (those are the developers I remember) And I have always had good results. Sometimes different, but always acceptable. For printing, it has been lots of Dektol, plenty of Ilford MG Dev, Some agfa nuetol wa, maybe some Zone VI or Clayton stuff, Arista Premium Liquid Developer, etc...and like the film, have always had great results. I process in a Jobo CPP/

I usually do people. Lots of natural light for location. 120 film exclusively. Not sold on any film, but have preffered Ilford over the years. I just have started experimenting with the Arista Ultra (I believe is Efke??) (have others experienced the film looks blue??)

So, do I have a question? Yes. err, I think I do.

As to print devlps.....Will this Ansco 130 do that much better than other listed? I like warm tone paper and looks for portraits. Does it really make a difference? Use Ilford Paper, Liked Luminos, but that's gone now?


As to film, any film best for portraits? that will give superior results??

I've found a properly exposed image, developed correctly, yields a nice negative that prints easily without any, or very little manipulation. Isn't that the real secret to a great print?

Ok, fire away boys and girls. Tell me where I'm wrong and right.

And to the 130 stuff, I looked at buying the bulk chemicals..looks like about 100 bucks to get most of the chems. Has anyone broken down the cost? Is PF the only place to buy it premixed?

Graicias!!

Only you can decide what film is best for your portraits, I've used mainly FP4 in the past also some Adox/Efke25 but more recently Tmax400 & now Delta 400. Other people swear by Tri-X.


If you want a warm-tone paper developer then Ilford ID-78 is excellent, you have to make it up yourself but it's very similar to Neutol WA, I can't comment on Agfa Ansco 130 as Glycin is almost unobtainable in the UK. It is worth mixing up your own developers etc after the initial outlay the savings are worthwhile & you can make up a vast array of specialist debs etc that just aren't commercially availabe.

Ian

Tell your wife to get a job!

Formualry is the only place, AFAIK, to buy glycin. You can buy the other chems at many places.

All devs have certain characteristics, some you may not see easily, but others stand out when compared to devs at the other end of the spectrum. Everyone has their favorites.

Arista EDU ultra = fomapan....in 120 it has a blue acetate base if I remember correctly.

I've found a properly exposed image, developed correctly, yields a nice negative that prints easily without any, or very little manipulation. Isn't that the real secret to a great print?
******
Yes, of course. But try convincing some of these "kids" how important that simple, but, oh so important, statement is, in fact.

Welcome to APUG. 130 is a fine developer, decent capacity, and it keeps well, and is probably my fave. I wouldn't call it a magic bullet, however. That other stuff you mentioned, what was it? Oh yeah, proper exposure and development, there be the magic bullet. If it was me (and it isn't, but if it was) I'd ramp back up with some familiar things, and then after I knew I was back in trim, then maybe I'd get jiggy with it.

Hello, again, Bong,
I've heard and read good things about Ansco 130; one of these days I intend to try it. For a pre-mix soup, I have always like Ethol LPD. In ye oldene dayz, Ethol gave instructions for mixing a gallon, then splitting it into a gallon of working solution and a gallon of replenisher which allowed one to do a humongous number of prints. Great stuff.
Myself, since I like cold-toned prints (and have yet to mess with amidol, which I am led to believe doesn't do much except on straight bromide papers, which are virtually non-existent these days) I prefer a modifed Ansco 103. That's not a typo, it's 103, not 130. It is a standard MQ developer, with a hefty amount of metol, and not too much potassium bromide. I halve the bromide, and substitute small amounts of 2% benzotriazole.
Let me know what you think of the 130 when you start using it.

Probably couldn't go wrong with Dektol...EC

For doing silver-gelatin printing, I really like Ansco 130. It lasts a very long time at working strength and yields wonderful tonality. The paper you use will make a bigger difference than your developer, initially - a warmtone developer can't do much to warm up a cold tone paper, but you can get a really nice cold tone with cold tone developers on warmtone paper, and near-sepia warmth with warm developer on warmtone paper. I don't seem to have it posted here anymore, but I did a paper/developer test and posted the results - you can really see the difference between developers on the old Bergger VCCB warmtone paper. Ilford Warmtone developer was the warmest, followed by Ansco 130, then Dektol, which was both cool-ish and green-ish (thanks to the bromides in the developer), then Ilford Cooltone developer as the coldest. It's a shame that they don't make Ilford Cooltone developer anymore - it was a really nice product.

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments..... I appreciate them.

As to Ilford WT developer, is that available commercially or will I need to mix it myself. I do remember using Nuetol WA which gave really nice results with the Ilford WT paper.

Most other points have been made so I'll restrict myself to:

Luminos is not gone - just changed name. It was Kentmere paper re-badged for the US market and is now sold in the US under its own Kentmere brand name. In addition, Kentmere itself was bought by Ilford last year (actually "Harman Technology" after the management buyout of the UK based b&w arm of Ilford... Hmmm this is beginning to sound like the plot of a rather obscure soap opera...). Harman/Ilford are producing the Kentmere paper on their own facilities now.

What happens is that you get used to some set of chemicals. If they are any good at all, you develop a technique for them. When you try something else with that technique, sometimes things don't work out quite as well as your used to. Then you start ascribing magical properties to your favorites. Most of the favorites - D-76, Ansco 130, Rodinal, etc. - are well established, quality products that work well in most situations. Sometimes something has some advantages for a special situation, but in general, there are no magic bullets. A lot depends on what you're used to.

tequilabong said:

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments..... I appreciate them.

As to Ilford WT developer, is that available commercially or will I need to mix it myself. I do remember using Nuetol WA which gave really nice results with the Ilford WT paper.

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AFAIK, Ilford WT developer is commercially available, but I haven't checked recently. You'll probably have to order it from somewhere like Freestyle or B&H, since local camera stores just aren't stocking darkroom supplies much any more.