[Leica] Dilutions of Grandeur: Xtol!

[Mark Rabiner <mark@rabiner.cncoffice.com>]

I started out doing 1:2 with Xtol my first month.
It seemed safer to start with.
A pro photographer down the street chastised me and showed me his perfect negs
and prints done at 1:3. And the Ansell/Troop book at said that was the way to
fly. They even mentioned higher dilutions.
It turned out to be easier to deal with the way the numbers work out as to what
odd amounts you've got left over. I have a quarter and half liter bottles I can
use for the remains. When you use 1:2 you can't Pi left over or some such thing
so there is some waste, not enough to get real excited about. When you compute
the thing we are talking just very few pennies per roll.

But here's this thing again. On dilution.
Much of it has to do with the sulfite in the formula, the preservative which
does much to control your grain because it is a silver solvent which eats at
each particle of silver turning it into a solution and plates it right back onto
your negative specifically into your highlights. At a higher dilution this will
not happen as much at all even though you developing time is longer.
What the benchmark is and what people are used to generally is D76.
D76 straight has 100 grams of sulfite per liter.
As it is commonly used 1:1 you have 50 grams per liter so you know what the
grain is like there.
Use it straight and you'll see mush grain from the etching and re plating.
Same with Microdol and both get a real edge from 1:2 dilution!
As we have recently learned Xtol has 85 grams per liter straight
1:1 it's 42.5 grams per liter
1:2 it's 28.333333333 grams per litter (see! it's Pi!)
1:3 it's 21.25 per liter. Not that much less that the 1:2.
But also you have to take into account that when developer is used at a higher
dilution it kicks out quicker so you get a higher edge effects. mackie lines.
This is important to get what we are used to seeing in our prints. No edge
effects from a powerful developing agent and it looks like a dirty cheapo lens
was the culprit. It's almost like adding unsharp mask I hope I'm right on that.
And it's almost as if it's giving you an extra usable shutter speed.

So you base your dilution on how much grain and edge effects you like or your
prints can tolerate at a certain size and subject matter.
With Xtol as your developer (ascorbic acid derivative and Phenidone derivative)
grain is not an issue even down to 21.25 per liter with 400 speed films at
11x14. You need a loupe to see it almost. Xtol has a way of looking to smooth.
It looks like 100 speed films we used to seeing. That's my experience.
Mark William Rabiner III
:)
It's almost impossible to believe anything that smooth and grainless can be so sharp.