Kodak HC110 vs Ilfotec HC

<p>Anything much to choose between the two? I love Ilfotec, especially how long it seems to last. I am getting to the bottom on a bottle bearly 4 years old and it seems completely fine.</p>

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<p>While I haven't compared the chemicals that make up each developer yet, I would add that HC110 also has a very long life even after opening the bottle. If you're satisfied with the Ilfotec HC I would stick with it. HC110 has been recently release in a larger size so trying it out would be expensive. However, I use HC110 so the larger bottle is fine with me.</p>

<p>I just got a bottle of the L110 developer from Freestyle to try. It doesn't look like HC-110 but I'll see how it works. Somewhere I have an old unopened bottle of Agfa Rodinal Special. I think it is also a phenidone based formula in a glycol mixture of some kind. My favorite long lasting developer used to be Edwal FG-7 when it was sold in the dark brown glass bottle. Once it was switched to a plastic bottle it didn't last nearly as long. </p>

<p>Last time I got (a pint) of HC110, I ended up transferring it to (4) four ounce dark brown bottles. Still on the first bottle, very low production. </p>

<p>The L110, IIRC, isn't thick and syrupy like the HC110. Not sure about the Ilfotec HC, since I've never tried it. Highly concentrated developers like these (also Rodinal) keep very well even in original containers, but dividing it among smaller containers is a good practice.</p>

<p>I like to refer to Kodak HC-110 as "liquid gold". I have been using it since the 1970s and I also bought some Ilford Ilfotec HC and used that with success as well twenty years ago. I prefer the Kodak because I have more information on compatible films and the numerous dilutions. You'll use dilution B the most which is stock plus 7 equal parts of water (equal to 1+31 from concentrate), and occasionally dilution A which is 1 part stock and 3 parts water. The four other dilutions C to F are used in special cases such as developing Tech Pan.<br>

Stock is made first, the contents of the bottle plus 3 parts water - do not try and make final solutions from concentrate as the thick syrup can lead to uneven solution mixes. The HC-110 stock is still fairly concentrated like Ilfosol-S or Tmax developers are and the dilutions are easy to mix at that point. Let me tell you an interesting story about HC-110 stock. In 1992 I mixed up a litre of stock solution for a friend so he could develop some films at home. As it happened, he was forced to move and lost his darkroom and returned the stock to me unused in the dark brown glass bottle I gave him. In 1999 when I built my current darkroom, I found it and tried it out, and the seven year old stock solution worked admirally. I still have some of that developer and used it last year, it was still working fine 21 years after I mixed it! That is some shelf life!</p>

<p>I use a syringe and make up dilution B from the syrup. Never had a dilution mistake in the five or six years that I've used this, however, YMMV. For anyone who's not comfortable with measuring such small quantities the preparation of stock solution plus dilution from that might make more sense. When I tried my first bottle of HC110 I tested it extensively before processing any important negatives.</p>