Topic: Developer Recommendations for Ilford FP4

[Adam Doe]

After years of playing with this and that film, I want to concentrate on using Ilford FP4 for my around 100 ISO photographs. I've used Ilfosol, Rodinal and HC110, but I feel that there may be a better match for FP4. Any recommendations?

[02Pilot]

I like it in Caffenol, but then that's the only developer I use. Still, it seems to be a good match for it - low grain, nice tonality.

[jharr]

Rodinal 1:100 stand will develop anything. (c) 2016 Indofunk 

[Indofunk]

Rodinal 1:100 stand will develop anything. (c) 2016 Indofunk 

Never gets old

I've only used HC110 myself, so I have nothing to add here...

[Ezzie]

In 120 I really like Rodinal 1:50

[Francois]

Being an old skool film, you might get good results from venerable D-76 or ID-11.
It give nice grain without any loss in film speed. It's been my favorite for many years. It's not as contrasty as HC-110 but still yields a good balance of tones.
I only used it full strength but I know that using it diluted will make grain even smaller.

[Jack Johnson]

I like it in Caffenol, but then that's the only developer I use. Still, it seems to be a good match for it - low grain, nice tonality.

Ditto!

FP4+ has been my favorite film for a very long time, whether lab- or home-processed. It's sometimes a little muddy in the mid-tones with my caffenol process, but that could also be my scanning.

Either way I'm sticking with it.

[MacArron]

In 120 I really like Rodinal 1:50

Me too, but I must say it is the only developer I've used with this film, and I'm pretty satisfied. I don't see the need of a change.

[Domingo A. Siliceo]

I'm not good digitizing negatives so I can't show you how it renders but, to my eye, best results with FP4 have been using Pyrocat-HD diluted 2:2:100.

That said, I must accept that Pyrocat is not an easy developer to prepare at home.