Response to Di-Xactol developer

George, I agree with Trevor's response. DiXactol is nice, but PMK does exhibit finer grain. The tonality and such are more subjective, but they are more similar than different. The biggest difference is price: PMK is much cheaper, and better yet, you can buy the chemicals and make your own. The DiXactol manufacturer has chosen to sell his product in equal sized bottles, of which you need several times more of "B" than "A." "B" is sold separately, and at an exorbitant price, considering that it is nothing more than a solution of sodium hydroxide, which is very, very inexpensive. So even if DiXactol was the equal of PMK, I'd use PMK because I resent the screwing DiXactol's maker tries to pull on his customers.

Incidentally, the formulation of PMK and DiXactol are completely different. The only similarity is that both developers tan and stain the emulsion. PMK uses pyrogallo as it's primary agent and DiXactol uses pyrocatechin (catechol); Accordingly, PMK produces a greenish/yellow stain and DiXactol a brownish stain. Ted Kaufman

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