Response to Divided developer: Does anybody use it?

i have found that divided developers are excellent for ISO 4000 films only and conventional ones at that, HP5 and Tri-X only, not T-Max 400 or Delta 400. The gradation is very beautiful, especially with Tri-X but the best asset is the reduction in high tones density, making printing easy with very little burning in to do, the shadow detail is also excellent. Divided D-76 has no advantage over the D-23 version at all. the best divided developers are ones that contain sodium sulphite in the second bath or at least sodium chloride in the first bath to prevent swelling which prevents streaking. Streaking is the most common problem with two bath develoeprs. a very good easy and cheap two bath is to use Ilford perceptol as the first bath and 10 grams in a liter of water of Borax in the second bath with tri-X and develop for five minutes in each bath with no wash imbetween baths. but remember , from my experience no two bath developer works well with anything but 400 ISO conventional films.

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