Response to General Characteristics of Developers...

I concur w/ the others. Spend the $27, or whatever it is, and buy "the Cookbook". It has become the Bible for developing since first published. Best overall guide I've seen. Also, film companie's claims are useless. They always say each of their "soups" are the best. They never really describe what TYPE of soup it is. And often, misuse terms like "acutance", "sharpness" , etc. In general, everything in the darkroom is a compromise. If you get one thing, - you lose another. For example, I have used Agfa Rodinal almost exclusively for the past 12 years. I came to this after trying all the other popular soups. Rodinal is a non-solvent type that gives maximum sharpness w/o increasing film speed. The price I pay is grain. However, the fastest films I use are HP5 or Tri-X. And I prefer slower ones. To me, Tmax3200 or Delta 3200 would be ugly in Rodinal. But I never shoot those films. If I did, I'd probably choose a "middle of the road" soup like Tmax Developer or D76. I'd still get fairly good sharpness, but much less noticeable grain. If I wanted no grain at all, I'd choose a soup like Microdol-X. But, I wouldn't - because I hate heavy solvent soups. They make prints look like mush. As for tonal scale and gradation,....well, it's all in what you like. My best advice is to try different chemicals till you find one you like. No matter what it is. And beware Darkroom Nazis who criticise anything different. Most of those folks are still repeating the nonsence they learned in college photo class. Regards, b30307

[ Previous | Next ]