Topic: Film Developers Choice

[Mike (happyforest)]

Has anyone had any experience of the following film developers?

BelliniFoto EURO HC (110)

BelliniFoto Ornano Gradual ST-20

Adox FX-39 II

I do not use enough film to warrant having a selection of film developers.

I use a variety of films from fresh to expired, low iso to high, generally at box speed.

Longevity of the stock solution is also a consideration. 

I currently use Rodinal, but not entirely happy with it, but it maybe the combination of expired film/age of the developer.

Once developed, I normally scan and digitally do the rest.

Thank you

Mike

[Francois]

I know that Rodinal can produce some quite grainy negatives.
The HC 110 variant has very good keeping qualities (especially when kept in concentrate form) and is really good for pushing film, but it tends to produce a bit more contrast than other devs. And Fomapan 400 just doesn't like the stuff, you have to rate it at EI 250 in order to get a decent contrast range. Also, keep in mind that HC-110 was made for newspaper reporters, so development times are very short and quality is second to getting the image. But the negatives it produces are usually easy to print and scan.

The Adox FX-39 is a variant of Neofin Red and is said to produce very detailed negatives. But I don't know how long it stays good.

[Pete_R]

No experience of those but I'm in similar position and use Ilford Ilfosol 3 for everything. I decant it in to 250ml brown glass bottles and it keeps for a long time (never actually recorded dates but six months at least for an opened bottle I would guess). It also is surprisingly consistant for dev times acorss several films which makes it easy if I want to dev a couple of different films together.

[Francois]

My record is some HC110 that expired in 2012. It even burned a hole through the bottom of the bottle!
I've transferred it to a glass jar and while it's getting to be the color of honey, it's still working.

[jharr]

I have about 300mL of HC110 that expired 02-2021. It still does the job. It is maybe the color of Coca-Cola. Still in the original bottle.

510-Pyro stock seems to keep for a very long time, but it is probably among the most toxic of developers, so there are better options for staining developers.

My-tol (X-tol clone) keeps well as stock. It is not simple to make, but not beyond the average kitchen chemist. It produces good negatives for scanning or printing using the times for X-tol on the Massive Dev Chart. If you need any phenidone, please ask me. I accidentally double-ordered and I have enough for quite a few lifetimes.

[Francois]

I know that PMK is the longest lasting developer of them all. Toxic like heck, but you can use some that was made in the 1920's and it would work just as well as if it was made yesterday.

I believe it has to do with the Pyrogallol which is essentially eternal.

[Mike (happyforest)]

Thank you all for your comments.  Still not decided on the way forward.

I've used  ID11 & Miicrophen, Xtol before, but transitioned to liquid developers when my film throughput decreased as I lost confidence in their life.  Not based on actually any experience, but I tended to not trust them surviving and made fresh stock solutions before transitioning to liquid developers.

I had a bad experience, with both Ilfosol 2 & LC29 failing on me, both well within their shelf life once opened.  Only ever tried one bottle of each, and to be honest, thinking about it now, given Ilford's reputation\QC control actually think it might have been something I did rather than there actually being a fault with these,

I moved to Rodinal after that given it's bulletproof reputation & longevity.

I've had written off pyro developer before, mainly because in the past the only way I seemed to be able to get it would be to make it myself.  It's not the handling the chemicals that's the issue, as I used to work in an analytical laboratory but the cost of getting the raw ingredients.  I never seemed to be able to get them all in the same place, and the multiple postage charges made it uneconomical and at the time, I didn't have a lot of disposable income. 

I will be potentially sourcing my final choice from:

https://ntphotoworks.com/


Mainly because of the choice of product available,  I don't think I've come across a better selection in the UK.  (That's probably also an issue, too much choice)

They do make sample bottles of some of their product for people to try but I am not sure that I want to get into a testing regime to select the developer but rather pick one & test it with the films stocks I have,  PanF, FP4, Kentmere 100 & 400, Tri-X, TMax 100 & 400 , some old Fuji Neopan 400 and even some Kodak Technical Pan.

One other way I am looking to hone my choice is the availability of reliable development times for the various film stocks.  Information from the manufacturers and correlating with other sources, like digitaltruth.com massive development chart.

ntpphotoworks do havenfomation on development times, some where they have carried out testing & some from their customers feedback.  Others they defer to the massive development chart.

Thanks again for the feedback,  off now to look at the pyro options, as these were a go to for one of the original founders of filmwasters & I really like the quality of these images.

Mike

[Francois]

One thing you can do is weigh the right amount of something like D-76 and just mix as much as you need.
The powder, when stored in a jar with some silica gel should last an awful long time.
Also, I discovered that some concentrate developers do support being frozen. So that might be worth investigating using one of their samplers.

[Pete_R]

ntphotoworks.com]]ntphotoworks.com

Your link to Nik & Trick doesn't work. They are always worth checking out for film related stuff though.

https://ntphotoworks.com/

[Paul H]

Apart from Rodinal, I use PC-TEA and 510-Pyro.  I use homemade versions, but you can buy 510-Pyro and PC-TEA (Black White & Green).  They both last a long time and they each have very similar developing times across a range of films: 10-11 minutes for PC-TEA 1+50, or 18 minutes (reduced agitation) for 510-Pyro at 1+100.

I made my current batch of PC-TEA way back in 2013, it's now "espresso black" but still works as good as they day I brewed it. The bottle of 510-Pyro I recently finished was of a similar vintage, mixed up by a fellow photographer here (I traded some PC-TEA). 

[Mike (happyforest)]

Paul,

Thank you for commenting.

I've found 510-pyro on Bristol Cameras Site.

https://www.bristolcameras.co.uk/product/zone-imaging-defehrs-510-pyro-bw-film-developer-100ml/

They quote 6+ years life for it.

Generally, they have a good range of products as well.

Mike

[Francois]

If it's not mixed, it should last even longer than that.

[Nigel]

Hi all,

It's been a while!

I generally use HC-110 for everything, mainly because of its keeping capacity and the fact I'm currently shooting a roll every couple of months!

However, I was thinking I'd like to try something less environmentally unpleasant when I read Alex Luyckx review of Bellini Eco. Apparently, it's an XTOL clone, but it liquid form. Which sounds like a win. Firstcall-Photo stock it in the UK, so I may give it a go. I'm not sure about the stockist for our friends in the frozen north! 

http://www.alexluyckx.com/blog/2022/12/26/developer-review-blog-no-36-bellini-ecofilm/

https://firstcall-photographic.co.uk/collections/all/products/bellini-eco-range-film-developer-500ml

[Pete_R]

Hi all,

Hi Nigel,

It's been a while!

Certainly has.

However, I was thinking I'd like to try something less environmentally unpleasant when I read Alex Luyckx review of Bellini Eco. Apparently, it's an XTOL clone, but it liquid form. Which sounds like a win. Firstcall-Photo stock it in the UK, so I may give it a go.

Also stocked by Nik&Trik. Cheaper too. https://ntphotoworks.com/bellinifoto-eco-film-xtol-developer/

[Nigel]

[/quote]
Also stocked by Nik&Trik. Cheaper too. https://ntphotoworks.com/bellinifoto-eco-film-xtol-developer/
[/quote]

Thanks, Peter.

I hadn't thought of looking there. I see that they also offer the Bellini Eco paper developer, which I was thinking of trying in my Pinsta pinhole.

https://ntphotoworks.com/bellinifoto-bwd100-ecological-paper-developer/