[Leica] Lab vs. home processing.

[feli at creocollective.com (Feli di Giorgio)]

Recently I was going over some older Tri-X negatives that were processed
by A&I and noticed just how fine grained they were. In comparison my TX/D76
negs were not nearly as smooth. I've been looking at my work flow and
have come up with the following:

a) They are not using D76, but maybe something like Xtol?

b) I am using Namco Super76. Perhaps the Kodak or Ilford version of
D76 is different and dissolves more grain?

c) Temperature control. I can guarantee that their work flow 
is far more consistent and controlled than mine...


Any ideas? I try to be very consistent with my processing, but maybe I
am missing something. Is this level of quality only achievable with
automated processing?

thanks,

Feli