Response to Discussion TMX in Xtol or T-Max developer...

When I was trying to get good results with TMX and XTOL I traded a few emails with the chemists who designed XTOL. They didn't have a solid answer, but were very aware of the net comments and results from labs and other people they knew. The problem seems to be just between the two products, not counting the clumping problem and possible water differences. Personally, I haven't had much inconsistancy with XTOL and I take no special precautions when mixing it- plain 'ol tap water. I break it up into small batches using clear 16 oz plastic water bottles. Recently I did a roll of FP4+ and noticed that the several months old XTOL actually had something growing in it. Too lazy to mix fresh, so I shook it up and used it. No problem whatsoever. I measure leader densities of each roll I process. It's a very unscientific way to keep track of anything, but it alerts me to any gross development problems- I've yet to see any difference in the Dmax for a given development time/temp with normal films. With TMX I did see variation, but never to the degree others have reported (and lots of people have reported it). One last bash against TMX- I went through an inexplicable scratching problem with the stuff. Cleaned the camera, cleaned the bulk loader, replaced the cassettes, cleaned the squeege (yes, I use one in spite of all recomendations to the contrary). As soon as I changed films, the scratches stopped. I don't know if it's fragile, if I got a bad batch or what but it was just one more reason to switch.

[ Previous | Next ]