Response to Xtol update... dreaded Xtol failures

The only problem I have ever had with XTOL was in 1998 the developer not last 3 months.It was stored in one of those accordion containers. Since switching to glass bottles, I have had no problems with the 1 liter packets. I did have some bad packets about 2 years ago but Kodak replaced them. I now understand that Kodak is discontinuing the 1 liter packets in favor of the 5 liter only. This would be unfortunate but I guess we all have to get accustomed to the big photo companies getting out of Silver Based Photography. I guess rushing the product into production with inadequate Quality Control has sealed the fate of XTOL. It seems that many photographers will never trust it. I certainly hope we don't "cut off our noses to spite our faces". BTW I am a serious ametuer (and proud of it even if I can't spell it) who does his own darkroom work, however, I don't relish the prospect of mixing my own developers. I use 35mm (all manual state of the art circa 1974) and a 30+ year old condenser Omega enlarger exclusively, because that is what I have and quite frankly I prefer to spend my money on film, paper and chemicals. I use as many elements of the zone system as practical and tend to expose several 36exp rolls process them & then print at my lesure (I'm doing this for fun after all). I use Kodak, Ilford, Forte, Agfa, Ethol, Edwal & Heico products. Sorry to ramble but I really like the look of my Delta 400 negs (ei 320) in XTOL 1:1 (with 20% pull) and I hope we don't inadvertantly bad mouth the stuff to death. Iacta Alea Esto! RO

[ Previous | Next ]