What film developer is your favorite and why ?

[Alpsman]

I started with Promicrol, a recommendation of my dealer.
When Promicrol was no longer available I changed to Tetenal Ultrafin.
After Tetenal ceased production I used Ilfosol 3.

Now I use Ilsosol 3 or Rollei Supergrain, whatever is available at my dealer.
Whit each of those developer I got images on my film stripes.

 

[skahde]

These days I like to use Moersch EFD with Delta 400. High accutance, still sharp but fine grain thanks to the Delta's characteristics and good shadow-detail, can be rated up to 640 ASA without pushing, just by a little less dilution.

 

[Freakscene]

These days I like to use Moersch EFD with Delta 400. High accutance, still sharp but fine grain thanks to the Delta's characteristics and good shadow-detail, can be rated up to 640 ASA without pushing, just by a little less dilution.

In the 1990s, I loved the first version of Delta 400 at 250 or 500 in Xtol. EFD is very similar as a dimezone-s ascorbate developer.

 

[trix4ever]

Leica M6, 50mm Summicron.
Another with Delta 400 in lc29 @1:29, these days I prefer Delta 400 to Tri-x ever since they altered Tri-x and it just doesn't look right to me.

 

[skahde]

In the 1990s, I loved the first version of Delta 400 at 250 or 500 in Xtol. EFD is very similar as a dimezone-s ascorbate developer.

I'm not sure how much similarity that means for the resulting negative. While XTol has moderate pH and high sulfite, EFD has high pH (carbonate) and low sulfite. They may be more similar when comparing very dilute XTol to EFD.
With EFD I found that e.g. FP4+ reacts more like to Rodinal 1:25 with respect to grain: Very gritty. I made a 28x35cm print from a 6x7 cm negative with easily visible grain, looked more like a fine grained 35mm-print. Not quite what I had in mind when carrying the big Bronica GS.