Please help me to choose a new B&W developer.

Cluster

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Dave
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My reusable Bellini Duo Step is pretty well exhausted.
There's a little left in the original bottles which I will add to the diluted working solution to dev my many very short rolls/test strips (so that I don't have to waste any one shot developers).

I will find a new developer to play with. I have some Rodinal (the Bellini version) which works well, but as I need to replenish my other chems, I'll add a developer to try out.
What are my choices for a general mono developer for Fomapan 100/200/400 & 517 film at box speed (maybe Fomapan 400 at less than box speed)?

I'd like a liquid one shot developer that has a good shelf life (one year), it can be a general dev, giving reasonable contrast etc.
 
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What size film Dave? What kind of look are you going for?

HC110 ticks all the boxes as a general purpose long lived developer.

But, on a couple of occasions with HC110 in MF on Fomapan I wished that I had used Rodinal. I wont be caught out again.
 
It will be for 35mm film with the occasional 120 roll. I'm looking for a general developer but, as Rodinal might give good contrast with larger grain than some, maybe a fine grain dev.
It might be that Rodinal would make a good choice. I'll get to use it more now.
 
The only film developer I've use for over 20 years is Pyrocat HD. It's like Rodinal on steroids, fine grain, exceptional sharpness, great tonality, and negatives that print and scan easily. No blown out highlights.

If Part A is made up in water shelf life is 4+ years, in Glycol a lot longer but why waste money.

Ian
 
Another vote for HC-110 from me. I have just finished the 1 litre bottle of Kodak HC-110 I opened in 2018! I've bought a 500 ml bottle of Adox HC-110 and used it for 3 or 4 rolls.

It's worth noting that Kodak managed to lose the rights to the HC-110 name (among others) to the terrible Chinese company, so Kodak now call it something like High Concentrate. I guess Adox didn't mind licensing it. The Adox version is not as syrupy as the original, but seems to be doing a good job.
 
My bottle of Bellini HC euro arrived. I'm looking forward to trying it. As ever, it may take several rolls to find a process that suits me.
In the meantime, I had a roll of Kentmere 100 that I had exposed in my Retina 1b at 200, accidentally.
I looked up what I could do with it and saw a suggestion on the Massive Dev chart for Rodinal 1:50 at 20mins. I used this, but agitated (one inversion) every 30 seconds in an attempt to improve contrast.
The results were very good. I usually use Fomapan 200 which gives a low contrast negative. This, at +1 exposure, gave contrasty negatives needing only a small adjustment in post processing. I may have another go with Fomapan 200 at similar times to see if it can improve contrast......
So much to learn.
 
I first developed film over 60 years ago using ID11. I am still using it and we are very happy together!
I can't offer an opinion on its performance with Fomapan as I only use Ilford. Pan F mainly, FP4 sometimes and HP5 only very occasionally as such high speed makes me dizzy.
The only other film developer I use is ID 36 for reversal processing 35mm to make slides. For paper it's ID 20. I mix all my developers myself from raw chemicals.
 
David_Mug said:
I first developed film over 60 years ago using ID11. I am still using it and we are very happy together!
I can't offer an opinion on its performance with Fomapan as I only use Ilford. Pan F mainly, FP4 sometimes and HP5 only very occasionally as such high speed makes me dizzy.
The only other film developer I use is ID 36 for reversal processing 35mm to make slides. For paper it's ID 20. I mix all my developers myself from raw chemicals.
Click to expand...

I can't remember what developer I first used for films, possibly Unitol, and D163 for prints, It would be over 60 years ago :D

These days for prints I use ID-78 which is essentially ID-62 with Bromide and no Benzotriazole. In the mid 1950s Ilford reformulated ID-20 using Phenidone instead of Metol, selling it as ID-20 PQ. Customers complained that as Bromide built up with use image tones became warmer. So Ilford reformulated ID-20 PQ as a liquid concentrate, substituting the Sodium Carbonate with less Potassium Carbonate and a little Sodium Hydroxide to maintain the pH, it is sold as PQ Universal, and more importantly dropping the Bromide level, substituting it with Benzotriazole, which stopped the warm shift. There have been slight changes over the years.

Ilford then formulated and sold ID-78 as a Warm tone powder developer. I mix as a liquid concentrate version, using Potassium Carbonate & Hydroxide, it keeps well. Agfa's liquid Neutol WA was and almost identical formula, except they used less Carbonate and slightly more Hydroxide, cutting costs.

Unfortunately MQ developers like ID-20 can't be concentrated in liquid form, because the Metol drops out of solution. The advantage of PQ paper developers is far greater capacity, as Bromide builds up it inhibits Metol, Phenidone is not inhibited. Ilford formulated a PQ version of ID-11 as a photofinishing developer, often referred to as the Axford-Kendall Fine Grain PQ developer, it was sold and marketed as Autophen

Ian
 
And some not so experienced, still with the "L" plates on. :)

I have just made a 2% Phenidone solution in Propylene glycol.

Tomorrow I will make FX 55 which is reportedly Geoffrey Crawley's finest developer.

Being two part, where the developing agents are separate, the shelf life is "indefinite"

I then have to learn how to use it with different films, wish me luck.
 
Cluster said:
We some very experienced members on this forum!
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I think you missed the word "have".

I worked as a photo-chemist and emulsion manufacturer for around a decade. Then moved up a notch to working with Gold instead of Silver for work.

Ian
 
I'm in the not so experienced category as well. I've developed hundreds of films, starting in the late (19)50s; but I've only really used two developers - Unitol until it was discontinued, and then Rodinal.

The first developer I used was a Johnsons' pactum universal developer because it was cheap and I could use it for contact prints.

I've never mixed my own.
 
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StephenM said:
I'm in the not so experienced category as well. I've developed hundreds of films, starting in the late (19)50s; but I've only really used two developers - Unitol until it was discontinued, and then Rodinal.

The first developer I used was a Johnsons' pactum universal developer because it was cheap and I could use it for contact prints.

I've never mixed my own.
Click to expand...
Unitol..excellent dev and the price in 1959 was 4 shillings (20p) for 250cc which would be £4.10 today
 
Jammy Dodger said:
I always used/use this:

www.wexphotovideo.com

Ilford Ilfosol 3 Developer 500ml | Wex Photo Video

www.wexphotovideo.com www.wexphotovideo.com

Now I use XP2 and C41; best B & W film I have used TBH.
Click to expand...

I used a lot of XP1 and then XP2, but almost always push processed shooting concerts, XP1 used a non-standard C41 development time and the datasheet also gave times for push processing. Labs hated processing it as it had to be processed separately. So Ilford reformulated the film for normal C42 development. They dropped any mention of push processing.

Despite this I push processed XP2, and later discussed this with Ilford, over a business lunch. They explained why they'd dropped the push process times, labs didn't want to be asked to offer the service, but of course it could be push processed. I did my own C41 & E6 processing so it wasn't a problem push processing. XP2 pushed was way better than HP5, Delta 3200 wasn't available until a few years later, but I stuck with XP2.

Personally for normal B&W use I find XP2 tonality bland, but I only make darkroom prints, and prefer Delta 100, or HP5 for hand held LF 5x4 use.

Ian
 
excalibur2 said:
Unitol..excellent dev and the price in 1959 was 4 shillings (20p) for 250cc which would be £4.10 today
Click to expand...

Unitol, like a few other John sons developers, contained Meritol, a fusion of Pyrocatechin and Paraphenylene diamine (PPD). The bottles contained warnings about getting the developer on your skin.

Johnsons were the oldest of all photographic companies, they supplied chemicals to Thomas Wedgwood and later Fox Talbot, making raw chemicals, developing agents, later colour developing agents and colour couplers.

Ian
 
Jammy Dodger said:
I always used/use this:

www.wexphotovideo.com

Ilford Ilfosol 3 Developer 500ml | Wex Photo Video

www.wexphotovideo.com www.wexphotovideo.com

Now I use XP2 and C41; best B & W film I have used TBH.
Click to expand...
I used Ilfosol 3 initially. But the first 3 bottles went off before I could finish them. So I bought and started using a litre bottle of Kodak HC-110 in 2018. I've just finished it this year, and I've moved on to a 500 ml bottle of Adox HC-110.

I should add that if I have more than a couple of films to develop they get sent off to a lab, and that one year I used FX39 for my ISO 100 films. But still, 160 odd films from one bottle over 7 years is pretty good!
 
I've yet to try the HC euro dev. Short test films etc go in the Duo Step (Diafine) as it's reusable.
One reason for looking for a new dev is that my Fomapan 200 (and 400 @400) is a little bit thin in Duo Step and not much better in Rodinal 1:50 10mins.
I've been reading a little about agitation during development and tried Fomapan200 in Rodinal 1:50 for 20 mins with inversions every 30 secs for the first 14 mins or so.
It came out very well. I have around 50ml left, so will try again. Not sure when HC Euro will get a look-in.
 
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