Most Commonly Used B&W Film Developer

Most Commonly Used B&W Film Developer

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Question for you guys: the only developer that I have ever used is Ilford DD-X. However, since I am getting tired of the expensive shipping costs plus I don't have a cool room to store it in the summer, I am looking for a powder alternative. Which powder developer would give me good results with FP4 and HP5?
 
giganova said:
Question for you guys: the only developer that I have ever used is Ilford DD-X. However, since I am getting tired of the expensive shipping costs plus I don't have a cool room to store it in the summer, I am looking for a powder alternative. Which powder developer would give me good results with FP4 and HP5?
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Best powder developer IMO is Microphen. It doesn´t dilute grain, and you can use it for HP5+ up to ISO 3200.
For FP4 you can use Rodinal: liquid, beautiful tone, it lasts for more than 10 years, tight crisp grain, and with a $15 500ml bottle you can process 100 rolls...
J.
 
Rodinal, HC110 dil.h and am about to mix a batch of caffenol and try that. Like the shelf life of Rodinal and HC110, buy it and forget it!
 
davidnewtonguitars said:
I have to admit that I've only developed a dozen rolls of film after a 41 year hiatus in the darkroom.
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I'm with you.... Except in my case the hiatus was more like 35 years. Photography class in HS involved mixing up the developer (D76?) in hot water, then cooling it in a water bath. Sometimes we kept it in the refrigerator and had to use a warming bath. It was tedious, time-consuming and frustrating. After that semester, I switched to Kodachrome and never looked back.

Now, my experiments with B&W are using Rodinal. So easy and simple.
 
In my first year of home made development (2012) I used Adox Adonal mainly with APX100 and tri-x / neopan 400. Later I moved to Ilford LC-29 and tri-x adding a bottle of DD-X from time to time for pushing tri-x and also for acros 100.
Inspired by the work of Erik I once tried perceptol with t-max 400 but LC-29 stays as my main developers also for the short time necessary to run batch of 2 film. I might consider Adonal / Rodinal again for future projects.
Giulio
 
October 13, 2017: aaand Rodinal passes HC110 and takes the lead! Rodinal is ahead by a sprocket hole!
 
webOSUser said:
I am a bit envious. Sometimes it seems to take that long for me to mix the HC110 and get the developer temperature down to 20°C.
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I'm pretty new to this, but 30 min. is about my time as well. I fill a tub in one half of the kitchen sink, get it to 72 degrees, and then mix the HC-110 from that. Stop and rinse come from the same tub. I use fixer at room temp, which is pretty close. It's become pretty routine.

John
 
Mainly HC110 H (1:60) at box speed or I pull one stop, I shoot Tmax 400
I use TMax 1:4 sometimes. not too often though

I use Time to adjust the contrast. More = More, Less = Less... 10%-20%... depends on sunny or cloudy days for the majority of the frames.
 
Been using PQ paper developer for films recently. 1:10 2mims or 1:20 4 mins .
Works rather well for everything.
 
I use D-76 1:1 most of the time.

For certain applications HC-110, Rodinol and Acufine see some use but none of those anywhere near as much as I use D-76.
 
I am set on the following combinations and they work for me:

Rodinal with Acros
D76 with Tri-X and TMY
HC110 with HP5+
 
D 76 diluted 1+3 gives the sharpest visible grain while keeping tri x at 320 asa. I like it better than hc 110.

D76 is easy, cheap and excellent.
 
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