D76 / ID11
Kodak D76 was introduced in the 1920’s and is considered by many to be a standard. Ilfords ID-11 is a virtually identical formula. It gives good sharpness and grain and beautiful tonality. A good choice if you want a normal rendering.
510 Pyro
510 Pyro is one of a new generation of developers formulated by Jay DeFehr in the USA. It is an incredible staining and tanning developer that produces fine grain and high accutance.
The staining action of the developer becomes a natural filter to tame highlights – which helps printing and scanning. Tanning of the geletin emulsion also protects the negatives from damage.
It is used in dilutions from 1:100 for normal developing, up to 1:500 for semi-stand development.
Rodinal
Rodinal was introduced in the 1880’s and is the oldest photographic developer still commercially available today. It is a highly concentrated developer that can be used at dilutions from 1:25 – 1:100, but as a rule of thumb it seems to give the best overall perfomance with a variety of films at 1:50.
Rodinal is a sharpness enhancing developer but produces more grain. This increase is barely noticable in slower films but gives a grittier look on faster films such as Tri-X and HP5+.
Rodinal’s tonal rendering is beautiful, with contrasty midtones and soft highlights when used on slow films, and a little bit harsher tonality with fast films that works well with the gritty grain these films give in Rodinal.
Xtol
An eco-friendly fine grained and sharp developer giving full film speed.
This developer is very versatile and gives awesome results. This gives wonderful shadow contrast and highlight detail with gentle grain.
Microphen
A pushing developer from Ilford that gives a third or more of a stop film speed.
Microphen allows for pushing your film one to three stops without increasing the grain levels. It is best used for pushing the faster films of ISO 400 or higher. It prioritises on giving shadow detail over highlights leading to good contrast control.
This developer is good for both pushed traditional and T grain films for both scanning and printing
E-72
This is a environmentally friendly version of Kodak Dektol formulated by Chris Patton. It doesn’t contain any Hydroquinone or Metol, but produces nice neutral tone prints with a good range from highlights to shadows.
