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Hi everyone,
I’ve just used up my first bottle of developer and I’m looking to buy some more. I’ve been using Ilfosol 3 but I want to get something a bit cheaper as I’ll be printing very soon as well as developing film. I’ve had a look at some of the developers available and this is my thinking:
D-76 seems to come up as a recommendation in a lot of places and seems to be a fair bit cheaper than Ilfosol 3 for developing film (Ilfosol 3 diluted to 1+9 costs 93p per 120 roll, whereas D-76 at 1+1 is 53p a roll when bought as a 1L bag, or 39p a roll when bought as a huuuge 3.8L bag). Sounds like it’s a jack of all trades that does nothing particularly well but does everything OK.
ID-11 sounds like it’s virtually identical to D-76 but is twice the price, so that’s out of the running to start with.
HC-110 seems versatile in that you can use different dilutions for different results, but again it’s quite a bit more money (£18.97 per litre, working out at £1.40 a roll at dilution B, or 1+7). edit: Dilution B is actually 1+31 (I quoted dilutions to create stock solution), meaning it works out at 35p a roll, quite cheap in fact.
T-Max is apparently better suited to T-Max films but is good for everything else too. My maths tells me it’ll cost a whopping £1.53 to dev a 120 roll though.
I’m curious about Rodinal as I shoot mainly low to medium speed film (50 to 400). A lot of people say that it’s quite an expensive developer but if I use it at 1+50 for 400 speed HP5 then it works out at 30p a roll which is nearly 25% less than D-76. Am I missing something here? Seen a few Youtube videos on stand developing with Rodinal at 1+100 and it looks pretty good (cheaper, too!). I can’t seem to find much information out about its suitability for printing though.
I’m leaning towards D-76 I think, because I’m bound to balls up a lot of printing and I don’t want to waste buckets of money along with paper and chemicals lol. I have no idea how much is needed to develop prints or how many prints can be made with one batch of developer though. edit: film developers are different to paper developes, stupid me! I don’t really have a strong opinion on grain either way, so I’m currently sat on the fence between the fine grain and high acutance developers.
Based on my requirements, is D-76 a good option or have I missed something out that would be better?
Thanks!
Carl
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Now edited to correct all the mistakes I made...
I’ve just used up my first bottle of developer and I’m looking to buy some more. I’ve been using Ilfosol 3 but I want to get something a bit cheaper as I’ll be printing very soon as well as developing film. I’ve had a look at some of the developers available and this is my thinking:
D-76 seems to come up as a recommendation in a lot of places and seems to be a fair bit cheaper than Ilfosol 3 for developing film (Ilfosol 3 diluted to 1+9 costs 93p per 120 roll, whereas D-76 at 1+1 is 53p a roll when bought as a 1L bag, or 39p a roll when bought as a huuuge 3.8L bag). Sounds like it’s a jack of all trades that does nothing particularly well but does everything OK.
ID-11 sounds like it’s virtually identical to D-76 but is twice the price, so that’s out of the running to start with.
HC-110 seems versatile in that you can use different dilutions for different results, but again it’s quite a bit more money (£18.97 per litre, working out at £1.40 a roll at dilution B, or 1+7). edit: Dilution B is actually 1+31 (I quoted dilutions to create stock solution), meaning it works out at 35p a roll, quite cheap in fact.
T-Max is apparently better suited to T-Max films but is good for everything else too. My maths tells me it’ll cost a whopping £1.53 to dev a 120 roll though.
I’m curious about Rodinal as I shoot mainly low to medium speed film (50 to 400). A lot of people say that it’s quite an expensive developer but if I use it at 1+50 for 400 speed HP5 then it works out at 30p a roll which is nearly 25% less than D-76. Am I missing something here? Seen a few Youtube videos on stand developing with Rodinal at 1+100 and it looks pretty good (cheaper, too!). I can’t seem to find much information out about its suitability for printing though.
I’m leaning towards D-76 I think, because I’m bound to balls up a lot of printing and I don’t want to waste buckets of money along with paper and chemicals lol. I have no idea how much is needed to develop prints or how many prints can be made with one batch of developer though. edit: film developers are different to paper developes, stupid me! I don’t really have a strong opinion on grain either way, so I’m currently sat on the fence between the fine grain and high acutance developers.
Based on my requirements, is D-76 a good option or have I missed something out that would be better?
Thanks!
Carl
----------
Now edited to correct all the mistakes I made...
Last edited: