[Leica] B&W developers

[Christopher Crawford]

I treat ALL developers as one-shot. You get the most consistent results
always using fresh developer, and developers are so cheap that trying to
save money by reusing is silly.

I keep four developers in stock at all times, and choose depending on the
film and look I want. Rodinal, D-76, Tmax Developer, and PMK.

When asked by a newbie to recommend one developer, I always say this:
D-76, diluted 1+1 is probably the best all around developer. Its easy to
use, relatively inexpensive, and gives good results on damn near every
film made.

If the person says: ³I don¹t want to deal with mixing powdered chemicals!²
I then recommend either Kodak Tmax Developer or Ilford DDX. I like them
because they give good results on most films and are easy to mix (no need
to accurately measure a few tiny ML of stock solution the way you do with
highly dilute developers like Rodinal or HC-110). The standard dilution
for both these developers is 1+4.

I recommend diluting 1+7. The 1+4 times for most films are pretty short
(5-6 minutes), and I like longer times to avoid uneven developing (with
any developer not just these two), and Tmax and DDX are relatively
expensive. The higher dilution saves money if that¹s an issue. To get 1+7
developing times, multiply the times the manufacturers give for the 1+4
dilution by 1.5x. (so if the 1+4 developing time is 6 minutes, give 9
minutes with the 1+7 dilution). This formula has worked for every film I
have tried.

-- 
Chris Crawford
Fine Art Photography
Fort Wayne, Indiana
260-437-8990

http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com  My portfolio

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On 6/14/17, 6:05 AM, "LUG on behalf of Gerry Walden"
<lug-bounces+chris=chriscrawfordphoto.com at leica-users.org on behalf of
gwpics at me.com> wrote:

>I don¹t want to start and wars here, and I know this is a minefield in
>which I will get a thousand and one answers, but is there any consensus
>of opinion these days on a one-shot b&w developer?
>
>Insanely I am thinking of doing my own processing of film again.
>
>Gerry
>
>Gerry Walden LRPS
>www.gwpics.com
>+44 (0)23 8046 3076 or
>+44 (0)797 287 7932
>
>
>
>
>
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