General XTOL and Hardener questions

I'm planning on a full day of developing tomorrow and will be using

XTOL for the first time. I'll mostly be developing Kodak Plus-X 125

and FP4+ 125. Is there anything I should look out for? Any advice on

agitation and/or development times? Should I presoak?

 

Also, I just bought an Adorama Fixer and the mixing instructions say:

1 gallon mix= 4 parts water, 1 part fixer and 16 oz. hardener. This

seems like an odd way post instructions. Does it mean: 1gallon=

4(22.4 oz. water) + 22.4 oz. fixer + 16 oz. hardener? Sorry if this

is a stupid question. Do I NEED to use a hardener? When I searched

photo.net, I found some posts that said modern films are sufficiently

hardened during manufacture.

 

Thanks All!

Make sure you use at least 100ml of Xtol stock soln per roll of

film (200ml for 220 rollfilm). Develop one roll of each at the

beginning to assess how well the recommended times work for

you (my times are about 15% longer than Kodak

recommendations), then modify the times to optimize the

results. Don't presoak.

 

Yes, you understand what 4:1 means. No, you don't need to use

hardener.

Nothing special about XTOL over many other developers. It's action is pretty straightforward. Start out with the recommended times and agitation scheme, then adjust from there to suit. I like it as a 1 shot developer at anywhere from 1+1 to 1+3. You need to use at least 100 ml. of stock solution per roll, but I use 150 ml. as cheap insurance. Of course that means you can't use the 1+2 or 1+3 dilutions in a small (250 ml.) tank. There's no need to use hardener with the Adorama fixer, and you don't need to worry about fractions of an ounce either when you dilute it. The formula is simple: 128/5 = 25.6. That works out to 26 oz. of fixer concentrate and 102 oz. of water

My experience with xtol with fp4+ is getting alot better. I love the 1:3 dillution for fp4+. I use a single roll in double roll tank, because you do need to have at least 100cc of xtol base solution so you wont get developer failure. Most of my times are based on Kodak's recommended times from the 1998 pdf file. The rest of my technique is based on "The Film Developer's Cookbook". I use the TF-4 fixer and a running tap water stop bath. I do not presoak. I agitate for the first 30seconds and 10 seconds every minute after that. I agitate by doing twisting inversions.

 

It is such a cool feeling when you see the images unwind from the developing reel.

 

Good Luck to you!

 

Steve

My experiences with FP4+ in XTOL have been great. I highly recommend it. Rating FP4+ at 125, with 1:1 @ 68 F, I develop between 7-8 min, depending on how the highlights appeared while I was shooting.

I just looked at the "Film Developing Cookbook" and they recommend "at least 250mL" of EXTOL. Has anyone found this to be necessary?

Also, the Adorama fixer says 1 minute for film. I always fixed for 3 to 7 minutes...is that over fixing?

I regularly develop two rolls with 7.5 oz of Xtol stock (1:2 dilution),

or about 110ml per roll, with no problems. Using 250ml of stock

seems paranoid.

Whether are or not you need hardener is a matter of opinion (like most things in this forum). Using hardener does help somewhat, even with modern films, but it lengthens wash time. This can be an issue in some locations where water is scarce and expensive. I use about 1/4 the recommended hardener with my fixer when processing film.