Another truly good thing about using Dektol (or D72, which someone has posted, just as good and in fact maybe even bette) for films. I just remembered.
If you have really old films - in my case, Kodak Panatomic-X going back to the 1970s, refrigerated throughout its life but most definitely in the long-in-the-tooth stage, as well as a few other 'vintage' films, some dating back to the 1950s - there is nothing like a good souping in Dektol to bring out any image, latent or other.
Often where other developers will fail, Dektol will usually produce some sort of image, whether usable or not, on almost all ancient films.
I no longer keep pre-packaged Dektol in my chemical stash at home, but thanks to Eastman's generosity in making all its old formulas readily available, I can home-brew a batch any time I like.
You can also mix some exotic film developers. I nowadays use an Ansco-Agfa (or maybe Agfa-Ansco) fine grain developer I was introduced to in the '90s by, IRRC, the late and sadly missed Roger Hicks. It produces beaut negatives with gorgeous mid-tones and it weaned me off D76 which I had been using for 20 years, so it's pretty good stuff.
Mixing one's own developers is not difficult. There is an initial cost for chemistry and some sort of scale (the cheap digital ones work as well as the old classic balances-and-weights ones) but once you have accumulated all the basics, the cost per liter is low, and almost all of the basic chemicals will last for ages. I have potassium bromide from the 1970s, now clumped but a few good whacks with a kitchen rolling pin (with the pot from in a plastic bag, of course) brings it back to powdered form.
Some will insist there is always a risk in using old chemicals in one's developers. That may be so, but in 40+ years of home-mixing I have yet to lose a film because of expired chemistry. And that's good enough for me...
Now I'llmix up a batch of D72.
