Black and White developers

These are just a relatively sparse list of developers I have used for black and white film.

Rodinal (from Labo-Argentique)

High acutance, my mainly used so far, generally at 1+25 to 1+50. Reveal grain as it is.

Used 2 times to do semi-stand at 1+100, agitate 1 minute, stand 30 minutes, 4 inversions, then 30 minutes of stand again.

When developing Ilford Delta 3200, it is better to push development time one extra stop when using the time form Massive Dev chart to get a more contrasted/denser negative that is easier to scan.

Fomapan 400 looks better when over exposed by around 1 stop when developed at it’s normal times.

ILFORD ILFOSOL 3

Finer grain developer. Very convenient to use. One-shot, generally diluted at 1+9 or 1+14. Shelf life is said to be bad, but this never died on me.

Good performance with Ilford Delta films.

KODAK D-76 (ADOX D-76 Classic / ILFORD ID11)

A classic. Only used a few times both stock and at dilution. I have recently mixed 5 liters of it, and I am currently using it to try to dial in (= reverse engineer the calibration trusing one film manufacturer’s measurement ) my sensitometry setup to estimate an arithmetic film speed that is probably not to the ISO-6 specification, but close enough.

This developer is otherwise quite good. Gives you a very nice range of tones, normal contrast, and fine grain. If you want more bite, dilute it 1+1.

ILFORD Microphen

This I have exclusively used to develop Ilford Delta 3200. It gives the expected performance at the “box” speed (which is a push). This works better than any other developer I tried with this emulsion.

KODAK XTOL (ADOX XT-3)

I have a bag of XT-3, I plan to do a replenished setup.

Other developers I want to try

510 Pyro

Very curious about staining developers in general. Seems both economical and with amazing performance. Retains the highlights while developing the shadows.