XTOL reuse unreplenished vs EcoPro

[maritimephoto]

I know, I know, I'm new but I've been through all the threads on comparing these two developers and I'm not trying to bring up that debate, what I'm trying to figure out is, if these two film developers are practically equivalent in everyone's experience so far, why EcoPro film developer pitched as a one-shot developer while Kodak's XTOL describes "The capacity of the full-strength developer with normal, unreplenished processing is approximately 15 rolls of 135-36 or 120 film" (page 2 here)?

I'm about to head out to a camp for a little while and I'm setting up a darkroom. I want to minimize the amount of materials I need to bring in. If I can just bring two 1L jugs of my stock EcoPro for my 25 rolls I'm good, but currently a bit concerned about the conflicting information of what should be complimentary products.

 

[Kino]

Respectfully, no one can run the tests for you; you have to make that judgement call yourself.

Consensus of others is of little use if you eventually find you like one better over the other.

FWIW, I have used both and they both work well.

Could this opportunity be a fortuitous chance to give EcoPro a real-world trial and help cement your opinion?

I think so.

 

[MattKing]

I don't see any capacity information in that EcoPro material. So I don't see any conflicting information. In fact, there is hardly any information at all.
I can't decide whether the relatively vague information that is there is intended to imply that the capacity (and other) information supplied for X-Tol applies to EccPro, but I wouldn't rely on that without careful checking.

 

[maritimephoto]

Respectfully, no one can run the tests for you; you have to make that judgement call yourself.

Consensus of others is of little use if you eventually find you like one better over the other.

FWIW, I have used both and they both work well.

Could this opportunity be a fortuitous chance to give EcoPro a real-world trial and help cement your opinion?

I think so.

Thanks for your input Kino. I wasn't expecting anyone to run any tests for me, nor am I asking for their opinion on one vs the other--preference isn't my concern here, I was mostly curious if folks have been reusing EcoPro Film developer without replenishing, and if they've had similar results to XTOL.

Whether or not EcoPro Film developer can be re-used without replenishing is the piece of information I wasn't finding through searching the forums or reading the documentation, and I was perplexed because the data sheet for EcoPro says it's a one-shot developer (but capable of replenishing) whereas XTOL specifically says it can handle up to 15 rolls without replenishing.

Since most folks deem these two developers close-enough-equivalents, I was assuming I could treat their non-replenished capacity the same but the conflicting documentation brought me here to ask if anyone has experience using EcoPro as such, not to request their services to test for me

I won't have the time to run 15 rolls through before my event, so I may just weigh on the side of caution and use a 1:2 dilution, but i'd prefer to re-use the stock if the possibility is there.

 

[maritimephoto]

I don't see any capacity information in that EcoPro material. So I don't see any conflicting information. In fact, there is hardly any information at all.
I can't decide whether the relatively vague information that is there is intended to imply that the capacity (and other) information supplied for X-Tol applies to EccPro, but I wouldn't rely on that without careful checking.

Yeah the documentation is quite frustratingly scant for the EcoPro, but I what little information there is DOES specifically say it's a one-shot developer, capable of replenishing, but suggests nothing for re-use without replenishment, unlike XTOLs specific table for reusing 1L of stock:

XTOL:

EcoPro:

 

[Sirius Glass]

Welcome to Photrio!

I use XTOL replenished because of the improved performance and it happens to be less expensive that way. Replenished and stock XTOL tightly sealed lasts for years.

 

[npl]

This is a puzzling subject with Xtol clones, when it's mentionned in the datasheet the capacity can vary quite widely :

Kodak Xtol : 15 rolls capacity. 6-10 +15%, 11-15 +30%

Adox XT-3 : 10 rolls capacity, "After the 5th film the developing time has to be increased by 1 minute for each following film" (sounds insane)

Foma fomadon Excel : 12 rolls capacity. No other information

EcoPro : no information.

I would follow Xtol's instructions and adjust if needed, but if you can bring 500ml more of stock solution you could develop one shot 1+2. Assuming you shoot 35mm and develop one roll at the time that's 100ml stock solution and 200ml water => 2500ml will be enough for 25 films without worrying about keeping track of the number of rolls and time compensation.

 

[dokko]

This is a puzzling subject with Xtol clones, when it's mentionned in the datasheet the capacity can vary quite widely :

this is most likely the different manufacturers trying to simplify the a complex topic in different ways.

In reality it's going to be a continuous curve, which will depend on the film type used, and how much exposure each film got (ie 10 films with night shots will need much less adjustment than 10 films with shots of snow landscapes). but trying to plot all that in a data sheet is going to be an enormous amount of work for the manufacturer and would probably confuse the user, so we're left with some very basic adjustments which usually will give "good enough" results.

those who really care for optimal results will either replenish and carefully monitor their chemicals or as you mention, use the developers one shot (and dilute it for economy)