Best Developer for Low Volume Shooter

I'm just getting my feet wet again with B&W film processing. I have

a nice stock of HP5+ to shoot and a newborn baby on the way. What

would you recommend as the best all-around developer for this

emulsion and possibly FP4? The things to consider:

 

1. Ease of use & consistency - can't be too finicky until I get some

practice - prefer solutions over powders

 

2. Shelf life - I'm a pretty low volume B&W shooter for the moment.

At 16 oz per tank, the developer ought to last me for a real long

time. I'll probably only use the developer once.

 

3. Recommended dilution? I'm still a little uncertain what effect

dilution has on the final negative besides time and material savings

(contrast?)

 

I've been recommended D-76 at 1:1 as a good place to start. Rodinal

also seems to have its proponents.

D-76 is a great all around developer. If you mix a gallon store it in 4-32oz. bottles to minimize oxidation. don't dilute it 1:1 until ready to develop.

Rodinal produces a great, sharp grain pattern but the dilution levels are so high it can be difficult to measure accurately/consistently for small tanks.

Yes. The first roll is fine. Two months later the second roll is blank and fourteen ounces of Fluffanolarol-X go down the drain. Can You get Sprint? Fits casual use very well.

Mike, try Ilford DD-X liquid developer. Check the Ilford website (ilford.com) and download the tech sheets for HP-5+ film and DD-X developer. They will tell you all you need to know about those products, and how to use them.

I would suggest Rodinal too. It's cheap, relatively forgiving with FP4/HP5 and its shelf life is very long (up to five-six years, according to some accounts). My favourite dilution is 1:50.

I have used both Rodinal and Ilford DD-X developers. I prefer ILford DD-X and think that I'm getting great looking tones from the HP5+ film developed in DD-X.

 

Like Rodinal, DD-X comes in liquid form, so you only need to dilute it to use it.

Dilution isn't a issue for me. I'm a chemist by trade and have access to syringes and pipettes to measure out the 10 or so mL per 500 required for my tank.

 

I guess that its a good idea to cap the graduates and mix reasonably well before pouring into the tank?

Mike, it's even a better idea to mix your working solution of developer with distilled water. Ilford DD-X is mixed 1 part developer liquid stock solution plus 4 parts water. It's not rocket science. Follow Ilford's recommended developing times, and you can't go wrong.

I'll recomend to you what was recommended to me. Kodak HC-110. Dilution: 1-31. Others have diluted it even more.

 

I find it to be quite economical, and my last bottle lasted more than a year. That may not be "recommended," or even frowned upon, but I don't argue with results. I have used it with HP5+ at everything from 320 to 3200 with (to me) very good results. Agfa APX100 is great with it, too.

Try diafine. Easiest to use developer and lasts for months on end!

The answer to your question is; Kodak HC110 or ILford DDX or

HC...all three of these stock developers will store well after

openning. Divide open bottle into several smaller bottles fill to

very top cap and use up to one year after openning.

 

Good luck

Happy snaps,

 

Steven

Rodinal (if you like the look) and HC-110 are good choices. They produce different effects with different dilutions, come as liquids, and the stock is long lasting.

I'll put in another vote for Diafine, it lasts for a long time, is not picky about temp or time, and is a very nice fine grain developer. You do keep reusing it rather then doing the one shot thing, but you can do a LOT of rolls ( or sheets as the case may be ) in each batch.

 

Have fun,

Well, lots of opinions here, but I'll cast another

vote for Rodinal. Easy to dilute the liquid, the stock

solution has a multi-year shelf life, and the stuff is

inexpensive. At 1:50, developing times are somewhat

long (try 12 min for Tri-X), which isn't so great if you're

in a hurry, but has the advantage that it's very easy to

get even development, and a few extra seconds spent

filling or dumping slowly is no big deal.

It has a sharp, somewhat grainy look compared to

D-76. I prefer the look, but not everyone does.

1. I'm with you - there some fine powder-mix developers out there, but none offer any huge advantage in image quality. Powders last longer while dry, but liquid concentrates last longer than mixed powder solutions, on average. Top contenders: Kodak HC-110, Agfa Rodinal, Ilford DDX, Ilford Ilfotec HC (which may be an HC-110 clone?)

 

2. Probably HC-110 has the best shelf life - I've had bottles of concentrate still going strong 12 months after first opening. Rodinal is very oxygen-sensitive - the original bottles (1960s/70s) had rubber stoppers and the cognoscenti used hypodermic needles to draw concentrate out through the stopper to minimise exposure to air (!). The new bottle no longer have the stopper but are available in small sizes. DDX (in my experience) lasts at least 3 months once the bottle is opened, and does 20 rolls per bottle at standard dilutions.

 

3. HC-110 is most commonly used at 1:32, Rodinal at either 1:25 or 1:50 (with some personal variations), and DDX is a straight 1:9.

 

More dilution (especially with Rodinal but in most cases) "compensates" for contrasty lighting by allowing the developer (between agitation cycles) to 'poop out' faster in the highlights while still developing in the shadows - the fewer the molecules of developer present, the faster they get used up where there's lot's of silver to react with, while in the thinner shadows, they just "keep on ticking".

 

Rodinal tends (note the qualifier) to be a high-sharpness, high-grain developer - it lacks silver solvents so it doesn't eat away at the edges of the developing grains. HC-110 is sort of like mild Rodinal, except that it 'provides it's own agitation' as one instructor of mine put it - it's so reactive that it doesn't 'compensate' as much. DDX is sort of a liquid form of D-76 in how it treats the film - a compromise between sharpness and fine grain (some silver-solvent effect) that is middle-of-the-road.

Geez - my math is off today - the others are right: DDX is 1:4 dilution and HC-110 is 1:31, not :32 (!!!)

Try Kodak T-Max Developer. It's an easy-to-mix liquid that works with all kinds of film. Unlike D-76 and many other developers, it usually delivers the full rated film speed. (However, my experience with Ilford HP5+ is that a rating of 200 works better than 400; use Ilford Delta 400 Pro to get a full speed of 400.)

 

Best of all, T-Max Developer lasts forever. Once I found an almost empty bottle of T-Max that was hidden for a year in the back of my refrigerator (where I always store my developers). I knew it was a year old because I always write the date on the bottle when I open it. I developed a few rolls of film with this year-old stuff and they came out perfectly -- no different than with a brand-new bottle.

 

Tom Halfhill

I've used d76 1:1, hc110, tmax and tmax rs, dd-x and pmk pyro (havn't tried rodinal though)

 

They ALL are great developers. The 20% of the time I don't use pyro, I use hc110 or dd-x because it is so convienient to mix in small quantities.

 

For hc110, I use dilution b per manufacturer instructions to start out. You can experiment from there to find a dilution, temp, time combo that works for you. Increased dilution usually decreases contrast, but you need to increase development time, and decrease agitation if you want a compensating effect. Ansel Adams book, "The Negative" goes into the inn and outs processing.

 

By the way, when your baby arrives, your volume of processing will go up quite a bit. Congratulations.

HC110 concentrate will last practically forever, even after opening. Rodinal concentrate is reported to last a year or more, even after opening.

 

If you prefer D-76 or ID-11 (same stuff) just mix up the powder into stock solution (1:0) and cap it tightly. I'm still using stock solution I mixed last July - works fine.

 

BTW, glass bottles with good caps seem to keep better than those brown plastic containers for photo chemistry. Those brown plastic containers are practically worthless for storage of oxidation-sensitive chemistry such as developers. Since my ID-11 stock solution is in a clear glass mineral water bottle I store it in a dark cupboard when not in use. If you can find those old style brown glass bottles, so much the better.

 

I also use Arizona Iced Tea bottles (clearly relabeled in permanent marker) for temporary storage of mixed paper developer and other solutions I plan to use within a week. Because the clear glass is almost completely covered in heavy plastic, exposure to light is not a problem. However there can be risks to keeping chemistry in food related containers so be careful.

 

Ilfosol-S concentrate doesn't seem to last long once opened. It's an excellent developer but must be used up within a couple of months of opening. I suspect that Xtol, another ascorbate type developer, may have a similarly short lifespan.

 

Are you planning to print at home too? If so, I highly recommend Alta ZonalPro HQ Warmtone for excellent results and very long life. I'm on the second week of reusing a 1:10 solution that's used in an open tray and returned to a glass container afterward. While I prefer the look of Ilford developers for Ilford MG RC papers, they don't last as long once mixed - a couple of days, tops, no matter how much or little they're used.

A strong suggestion here for HC-110. Has a half-life that would rival a christmas fruit cake in a stasis field, and works very well with HP5 and FP4 at dilution B (1:31).

 

Next suggestion is DDX.

 

Rodinal should be subject to experimentation, and I wouldn't consider it a general purpose developer.

 

Sorry, but I've never any powder base developer that has as strong a shelf life as the ones mentioned above..

I'd suggest Rodinal. Its storage qualities are legendary. I had a half-empty bottle sitting around in the darkroom for nigh on four years and despite looking like Turkish coffee it worked fine. Other than that look at HC110.

Neofin comes in small capsules of liquid concentrate, to be diluted for single use. The concentrates last for years.

Mike the answer to increasing the shelf life of liquid concentrated developers is marbles. I know it sounds weird, but as you use the concentrate, drop glass marbles or beads into the container to bring the fluid level up to the top of the container, thus eliminating the air. It�s an old trick. By the way, I like Rodinal.

ZONAL PRO - all the way

zonal pro's Gamma Plus has got to be the best film developer i have personally used, but its more costly than the more bulk chemicals such as d-76. But that might make it practical for low volume shooting. It comes in liquid form so making a small batch of working solution is exceptionally simple.