Film Developer and a confused old fool.

[DCphotos]

Ok, so I'm not by any means new to film processing, I'm a professional photographer and I've been doing it over 30 years. I've been getting pretty good results with HC110 and Tri-X 320 for my large format stuff. I have come to swear by xtol for the 35mm and 120.

So anyhow B&H is out of HC110 and I don't want to wait. I used to have a lot of fun with the products photographers formulary makes, but I bought them at a store that no longer exist or ordered from a catalog. Going to their website I see more than I can read about. It sounds like ABC Pyro is what I want. Perhaps you guys can explain or suggest some others, I am mostly doing landscape stuff but will be doing some portraits in studio very soon as well.

[Leigh]

How about Freestyle or Adorama for HC-110?

- Leigh

[Thalmees]

Hello DCphotos,
Welcome to the forum.
I think Rodinal is the logic alternative of HC-110.
Both are versatile, but it's not the most important character of a developer.
I used to use HC-110 for long time, but replaced by TMxRs and DDx.
Now, after trying HRX with FP4+, I think I will reconsider priorities again for films and developers.
Sorry, do not know ABC Pyro.

[eabartel]

i use ABC pyro from photographers formulary and quite like it for both landscapes and portraits. I've purchased it from them, B&H, and amazon depending on what all i'm getting and the shipping.

[Mark Sampson]

If you're using XTOL for roll film, try it with sheet film. Diluted 1:1 you can get a nice long tonal scale, and sharpness and grain will be at least the equal of HC-110'B'. 25 years in the labs at Kodak sent me from D-76 to HC-110 to XTOL.
If you want to play with staining developers, Sandy King's Pyrocat-MC or -HD will do a marvelous job; there is a great deal of information about it on this site and on his own. I have only used that developer with Ilford FP4+

[DCphotos]

If you're using XTOL for roll film, try it with sheet film. Diluted 1:1 you can get a nice long tonal scale, and sharpness and grain will be at least the equal of HC-110'B'. 25 years in the labs at Kodak sent me from D-76 to HC-110 to XTOL.
If you want to play with staining developers, Sandy King's Pyrocat-MC or -HD will do a marvelous job; there is a great deal of information about it on this site and on his own. I have only used that developer with Ilford FP4+

I'll read up Sandy King. I shoot a lot of 35mm Tri-X and I generally expose it at 1600. In xtol 1:1 it looks as good as it ever did at 400 in other developers. I've run my 4x5 tri-s in both xtol and hc-110, exposing at 160 and it seems that I get better results with the HC110 though. I only tested this on one shoot though and it was a portrait of my father in law by a lake. Edge sharpness was the real difference, and to be honest they were not huge differences.

[dasBlute]

if you rotary process, some pyro's oxidate more than others... something to consider...

[Richard Wasserman]

I think XTOL looks best when used replenished, which is easy to do. If you want to try a staining developer, I think any of the Pyrocat versions are terrific—finer grain than ABC, with great sharpness and tonality.

[Jeffrey Arthur]

HC110 is on Amazon.

[Alan9940]

You can get an HC-110 clone from Freestyle called L-110. I've used it before and found the results identical to HC-110. If you want to pursue a staining developer, I wouldn't look any further than Pyrocat-HD or, perhaps, -MC. I'd strongly recommend staying away from ABC Pyro unless you don't mind quite a loss of film speed, and don't mind mixing your own. I used it for awhile and found the greatest consistency resulted from mixing the "B" component just before use.

Good luck!

[diversey]

HC-110, 1 liter bottle, concentrated, is available from BH, $28.50 per bottle. I recently bought 2 bottles with free shipping. I just checked BH website, HC-110 is available.

[jp]

Premixed (liquid concentrate) pyrocat hd in glycol works awesome, maintains good film speed, fine grain, low cost, long life, etc.. It's a good choice if you're shopping Photographer's Formulary.

[Mark Sampson]

You should find a copy of "The Film Developer Cookbook" (?) by Steve Anchell. My copy is in storage far away right now, but it explained many things about developers that had been mysteries to me for decades. Someone on this forum will have the right title, I hope. It's a very valuable resource for those of us developing film.

[LabRat]

If you do more than just a little processing, you should seriously consider mixing your stock from scratch... It takes just a few to several bulk amounts of chem, a scale, and formulas you can find in old books, and on the web... It is fresher, as you can mix what you need, much cheaper than store bought, can keep very well as the chems are mixed in the right order to fully dissolve in solution (in proper order), many variations/looks/applications you can use by choice of formulas, and best of all, it can bring out the mad scientist/Walter White in you... ;-)

Start posts asking about it, and you will find many members here doing it and enjoying the results...

Steve K