Ilford Ilfosol 3

[Roberto Nania]

Hello to all,

My Kodak HC-110 bottle is almost empty and I'm looking for a universal developer non-Kodak branded that could works well with the films I use the most: Fomapan 200, Ilford FP4, Ilford HP5.
Since I do few developing sessions in a month, I need something durable and convenient.
I know that Ilfotec HC is the direct countepart of Kodak HC110 but I would give Ilfosol 3 a try.

I like D76 (ID11) too but it is anything but convenient; could Ilfosol be comparable to D76 in terms or grain and contrast rendition? Does anyone have experience with this dev?

Thank you!

[Tin Can]

!0 years ago when I started my LF adventure Ilfosol 3 was the first developer I tried

It didn't seem to last in bottle very long after opened, I disposed of it

I soon switched to Rodinol which lasts far better, some say it never goes bad, IDK

I was given a case of ancient sealed Rodinol, I still use some of that and many variations that all seem to work the same

I like simple high dilution liquid developers

Nearly everybody here has a prefered developer and says theirs is best

They all develop film

[Michael R]

Ilfosol will likely give you slightly less emulsion speed or shadow detail than D-76/ID-11, but it may or may not be noticeable so you’d need to try it for yourself. Ilfosol will also be more grainy than D-76/ID-11, however again, you’d really need to try it and decide if you can see a difference because perception of graininess obviously depends on which film you use and how much you enlarge your negatives.

A liquid alternative more similar to the D-76/ID-11 would be Ilfotec DD-X.

As you noted, Ilfotec HC might be a better choice if you want a developer similar to HC-110. Rodinal is an additional option which will be very economical, long lasting, reliable and easy to use. It will give you grainier negatives than D-76/ID-11 but as with Ilfosol the increase in graininess may or may not matter.



Hello to all,

My Kodak HC-110 bottle is almost empty and I'm looking for a universal developer non-Kodak branded that could works well with the films I use the most: Fomapan 200, Ilford FP4, Ilford HP5.
Since I do few developing sessions in a month, I need something durable and convenient.
I know that Ilfotec HC is the direct countepart of Kodak HC110 but I would give Ilfosol 3 a try.

I like D76 (ID11) too but it is anything but convenient; could Ilfosol be comparable to D76 in terms or grain and contrast rendition? Does anyone have experience with this dev?

Thank you!

[sperdynamite]

Buy the raw materials to make D76H. Couldn't be easier to do and lasts a very long time.

[sharktooth]

I've been burned twice by Ilfosol 3. Once the container has been opened, the concentrate goes bad very quickly. By bad, I mean no image at all on the film. Completely blank. As Tin Can noted, Rodinal is a much better alternative as a high dilution developer. I've used Rodinal from partially full containers that were at least 30 years old with no problems. That being said, Rodinal is much grainier than D76/ID11, but for large format film that usually isn't a concern.

[Roberto Nania]

Thank you gents.

Looking at you experience, I will skip Ilfosol 3.

I didn't like Rodinal when I used it for 35mm, I always got too contrast and poor shadow details with it; maybe it was my fault or I should test different dilution with it; it was never love with Rodinal.

Ilfotec DDX should be the counterpart of Kodak T-Max which is a developer that I loved a lot used on HP5 and TMax3200. Though it's not cheap.

Considering that I plan to move to the 8x10 film size(so larger volume of chemicals), maybe I would stick with HC110 for as long kodak survives and keep D76-ID11 or the D76H formula for some very special portrait shots.

[Tin Can]

I like grain

[mike rosenlof]

I used Ilfosol S back in the 90s and was always happy with the results. I never had a developing failure, but I was using it up pretty quickly at that time. Still, it was probablly a couple of months to finish a bottle. I switched to hc-110 when I started developing film less often.

[Tobias Key]

I am a big fan of DD-X. It is expensive but you can use it 1+9 to keep costs down and still get good results.

[Andrew O'Neill]

HP5 looks great in Ilfosol-3 diluted 1+14. EI 250.

[paulbarden]

I had a similar experience as others described: Ilfosol goes bad VERY quickly once the bottle is opened. If you can use the bottle in a few weeks, you'll be fine, but don't expect it to be usable 3 months from opening.
Personally, of all the "concentrate" developers available, I like Pyrocat HD. I dislike Rodinal a lot: poor shadow retention and harsh contrast. For some, that's a plus, but not for me.

[richydicky]

In defence of Ilfosol 3, my understanding is that the older Ilfosol S formulation went off quickly and possibly people's past experience of that has tainted the newer Ilfosol 3. I came across it by accident using it for another process. I bought some last November and decanted into two 250ml bottles. I have been using the second of those bottles over the last 3 months with no issues and there is still some left which looks fine. I do add gas in between uses as I do with all developers as they will oxidise over time. I like the results very much especially with HP5+.

[paulbarden]

In defence of Ilfosol 3, my understanding is that the older Ilfosol S formulation went off quickly and possibly people's past experience of that has tainted the newer Ilfosol 3. I came across it by accident using it for another process. I bought some last November and decanted into two 250ml bottles. I have been using the second of those bottles over the last 3 months with no issues and there is still some left which looks fine. I do add gas in between uses as I do with all developers as they will oxidise over time. I like the results very much especially with HP5+.

Nope. My experience is with Ilfosol 3. If you are venting oxygen from the opened bottle, that is likely why you're not experiencing failure of the developer. Most of us don't make that much effort to protect developers from oxidation, nor should we be expected to have to.

[esearing]

Find some other darkroom practitioners in your area and try a few different developers. Or mix your own from raw chemicals. Once you go down the DIY path your tool box widens, but you end up doing a lot of testing to see subtle differences. I personally like cachetol based developers for their one shot use with minimal stock chemistry. The most popular pyrocat-HD is used 1A:1B:100 and will last about 6 months without any effort to remove air from the stock part A, maybe a year for the glycol version. Pyrocat-Metol lasts about a year, but I now rarely make more than 200ml stock at a time and use it up. Jay Defehr's Obsidian Aqua is just 3 chemicals for A and B works just like Pyrocat-HD and is sharper than Pyrocat-M.

And if you are really into experimentation - paper developer Ansco 130 diluted 1:10 works very well but you have to dial in your time to manage the contrast. I would imagine other paper developers would behave similarly. At higher dilution they exhaust quickly so beware of underdevelopment.
There are also the caffenol and red wine developers if trying to be more environmentally friendly or want to use standard household products. All you need are washing soda and vitamin C.

[wooserco]

Hello to all,

My Kodak HC-110 bottle is almost empty and I'm looking for a universal developer non-Kodak branded that could works well with the films I use the most: Fomapan 200, Ilford FP4, Ilford HP5.
Since I do few developing sessions in a month, I need something durable and convenient.
I know that Ilfotec HC is the direct countepart of Kodak HC110 but I would give Ilfosol 3 a try.

I like D76 (ID11) too but it is anything but convenient; could Ilfosol be comparable to D76 in terms or grain and contrast rendition? Does anyone have experience with this dev?

Thank you!

While I started out with Ilfosol 3 and really, really liked the results: It does go off quickly, less than 6 months in opened bottle. Went to using XTOL. Wife and I moved, haven't shot since November, 2019, so no developing since.

Since the SINO Promise issue with XTOL: after my last bag of the real KODAK XTOL, I'm probably going to switch to Rodinal or the Freestyle Legacy Pro XTOL equivalent.