Developer for fast films?

[oscroft]

I restarted my b&w developing recently, and thanks to recommendations from you fine folks here I started with a bottle of Rodinal (I'd used ID-11 and Acutol in the old days). I'm pretty impressed, even with Delta 400 (though Delta 400 is an impressively fine grained film for a 400). Also, being a liquid concentrate, it's very easy to use, and it keeps well. But it's not so great with HP5+, which does seem to come out a bit lumpy (though I might be unfairly comparing it to Delta 400).

So I'd like to try a developer that is considered to work well with higher speed films (from HP5+ and Delta 400 up to Neopan 1600). Ideally, it would be a liquid concentrate with a decent shelf life - I'm only shooting one or two films a week right now, and that's while I have new gear to test. (Making up and storing large volumes of powdered developers would be a bit of a pain considering my modest throughput, but I'll do it if necessary).

So, opinions would be very much appreciated.

 

[Kin Lau]

HC110 (concentrate), otherwise Diafine. Both store for just about forever.

I typically use Rodinal for slow films, HC110 for speed both for faster development time and push processing. Diafine's a premixed developer that's a bit hard to find at times (you'll like have to order from the US) but quite unique in it's character. Do a search here and on photo.net for the many discussions we've had about it.

 

[oscroft]

Brilliant, thanks - I'll do a search for HC110 and Diafine. HC110 seems to be easily available here in the UK, so maybe that's the one for me to try first.

 

[P C Headland]

Diafine or Acufine could be worth a look. Both are available in the UK (MrCad). TriX in Diafine gives an EI of 1000-1600 depending on format, and Neopan 400 gives an EI of about 640.

Surprisingly enough, Neopan 1600 does very well in Rodinal 1+50.

 

[oscroft]

Surprisingly enough, Neopan 1600 does very well in Rodinal 1+50

That's interesting - I'll try it before I buy anything new (I'm very pleased with Delta 400 at 1+50, so maybe I don't need to try anything else just yet).

Thanks

 

[kaiyen]

I would've gone with DDX as my first recommendation, but I haven't used HC-110 or Diafine so... 🙂

HP5 and Rodinal has _never_ looked good to me, personally. As you say, the grain is weird. Not grainy or peppery or whatever. Just plain weird.

allan

 

[oscroft]

HP5 and Rodinal has _never_ looked good to me, personally. As you say, the grain is weird. Not grainy or peppery or whatever. Just plain weird.

Yeah, it's hard to describe - I think you're right, "weird" is the word for it 🙂

 

[Mackinaw]

While it's a powder, Xtol is very good at delivering the rated speed, and even adding to the speed, of most high speed films. It's my standard developer with Ilford HP5.

Jim Bielecki

 

[SuitePhoto]

I second that vote for Xtol. I developed a roll of Neopan 1600 @ 1250 in Xtol 1:1 this weekend. Not only was it my first sucessful try at developing, I'm pretty happy with the results! 🙂 I just posted a few examples on my gallery.

 

[titrisol]

DDX or Xtol would be better
or Clayton F76+ if you live in the US

 

[goo0h]

DDX or Xtol would be better
or Clayton F76+ if you live in the US

I was just going to ask: overall, how would folks compare Xtol to Clayton F76+?

Clayton F76+ is similar to Ilford's Microphen, right? I believe they are both phenidone-based developers. Browsing around on flickr this past weekend I stumbled upon this series which turns out to have been developed with Microphen:

http://flickr.com/photos/lilian3000/sets/72157594183851869/

Since OP wanted a liquid, perhaps Clayton F76+ would be an adequate alternative to Microphen? However, I haven't seen many threads discussing the times for development of Neopan 1600 with F76+, but perhaps I just haven't looked in the right places yet.

I have to admit this is a topic I have been following closely myself too. I've seen a lot of fine results using the Neopan 1600 + Xtol combo, but have to admit the "sudden death" stories of Xtol have been a bit of a concern. Hence my curiosity with F76+ and/or Microphen.

Oh, then there's DS-10:

http://wiki.silvergrain.org/wiki/index.php/Film_Developer_Recommendations

Have any folks here tried that? I notice he directly raises the issues of Xtol failures and indicates that DS-10 might be more robust. I wonder if folks have had similar experiences?

 

[kaiyen]

I wouldn't worry too much about the sudden death issue of XTOL - just use some caution and it seems like it'll be okay.

But ddx and f76+ are supposedly the same, and both are liquid concentrate, phenidone-based developers, and are therefore extremely close to microphen.

For dev times, always start with the massive dev chart, which lists 8 minutes for EI 1600 of NP1600. 1+9.

allan