Edit: What I wrote in this post is nonsense in light of one simple fact… We’re talking about XTOL where the recommended stock solution per roll of 35mm film/120/sheet 8x10 is 100 ml.
[Begin the nonsense]
I think there’s far too much attention paid to the question of whether you have enough stock per square inch.
The recommended amount is enough that developer won’t be exhausted and development byproducts don’t impact the developing image. It’s an amount chosen to give a predictable recommended time.
But I believe the specified amount is a generous amount. I say you can deal with the impacts of exhaustion and byproducts by giving more development time (on the order of 10-15% more time) and agitating effectively (Kodak agitation).
If this stock solution per square inch were a significant problem to worry about, my time/contrast datapoints would be scattered widely depending on whether I had three 24-exposure rolls and a six-inch test strip, versus four full 36 exposure rolls in a 32 ounce tank. In fact the scatter is tight and times are consistently reliable.
But to make it work for you the way it works for me is to let go of the times they gave you and develop to results instead. Develop as long as it takes to make negatives that work for you, not for the times in the chart.
Sensitometric test strips are one way to do this. If you don’t have a Stouffer scale (that you can get for six dollars), you could do “bracketed” exposures of a favorite test scene like the side of your home including your Weber kettle barbecue.
[End the nonsense]
