Black & White Film Developer Buying Guide

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**UPDATE**
It seems that I was off a bit in my assessment of Perceptol. See pinned comment in the comments below.

In this video, we review twelve of the most popular black and white film developers, compare them side by side, and hopefully help you come away with some idea of which solution is going to work best for your needs.

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[soulstart]

Great informative video. I use microphen and perceptol. I think you made a little mistake about perceptol. It’s designed for slow to medium speed film. You lose some speed of the film you use in turn for extremely fine grain negative. So normally you rate the film half of what it is to get the full range of tones. It’s good for pulling say hp5. Microphen is great for pushing film like you stated.

Really enjoy your videos. This must of been a very time consuming process. Great work 👍🏾

[squareformat]

Can i just say it was a very excellent video and it is so refreshing to see someone who genuinely knows what they're talking about. Came away with information on certain developers i didn't know. Thank you.

[randykirby]

When putting the cap back on the developer bottle, squeeze the bottle while screwing the cap on. Air will shorten the life of the developer. Some bottles of developer when they leave the factory already have the bottle squeezed to remove air from the bottle and have it in a bit of a vacuum.

[andrewmadjar]

I came to your channel as purely a Fujifilm digital shooter. I stuck around for your film content. So now... Well funnily enough, my first bottle of developer (DD-X) arrived in the post yesterday. Thanks for the inspiration!

[michaelfuchs]

These film guides are amazingly useful! I spent hours with them already, great work!

[DavidHancock]

Well, I just learned a number of things I didn't know. Thank you!

[jonsafran]

Excellent video, Andrew. We at KEH love your work!

[thebuggy]

Nice work.

My own experience: All the well known brands produce good developers (and bw films).
My combination is Rodinal with APX Agfa 100 ISO 135 film.
Stay with your set up and experiment and gain experience with your combination film developer.
Professional photographers have good results because they know the material they use in and out and they know the limits.
It is more the experience and not so much the camera or film or developer they use.

There are many developers (film brands, cameras, but this is MY developer.

Anyway I really enjoy the clip and the work you have done. Great.

[vampd]

Thank y’all for continuing to put out invaluable content like this.

[Otokichi]

This "Spy vs. Spy" setup reminds me of the 1970's (?) "Black and White Is Coming To America!" ad campaign when Ilford arrived on the U.S. market. The highlighted "White Spy" and Shadowed "Black Spy"-type setting featured female models, a "peaches and cream" White and "Dusky" Black in cheeky poses. Ilford claimed that FP4 could handle the 7 f/stop range easily, which created a set of stunning visuals. Eastman Kodak, caught off guard by these ads, had to hastily proclaim that this tonal range could be handled by Plus-X Pan, as well. Nevertheless, the campaign established Ilford in the U.S. market, and one didn't have to rely only on Freestyle Sales for foreign film.
Addendum: Photo Color, a 2 solution plastic bottle C-41 process began challenging Unicolor for the "home darkroom" market about this time.
On Monobaths: A photography magazine writer turned on his stopwatch to see how fast he could go from dry, unprocessed film to damp, processed, ready-to-print negatives. In "How to Process Under Pressure, " this "stop the presses!" approach to film photography got across the finish line in about 5 minutes.

[blackwhitestyles]

I used Rodinal initially, the shelf-life is amazing and it's a really easy to use, no-fuss developer. Eventually I made the switch over to Xtol because I often found Rodinal unflattering. Xtol + Tmax400 results in contrast that is easy to control in post, pleasantly fine grain and high sharpness for 135 film. It actually made me pick up my medium format cameras less frequently because I'm finally pleased with the look of my 135 negatives.

[erwindegroot]

The modern Rodinal hasn't got the long shelf life anymore, some additive(s) aren't available/allowed anymore. I believe one was carcinogenic.
ID-11 can be cheaper if you buy the 5 litre package, here in Europe it costs the same as 2x the 1 litre packages.
I use ID-11 1+3 as my standard developer for my most used films; FP4+, HP5+ and Delta 100. In this dilution at 20° C, you get a development time of 20 minutes, quite long, but for these 3 films the development has the same time. So I can mix these films in the same tank. And with long development times you won't see little mistakes with the development timing on your negatives.
When your using a tank like the Combi-plan, short development times are not working. It takes almost half a minute to drain or fill it, so the bottom half of your sheet film will be longer developed than the top.

[richardg]

Very nice job, thanks. XTOL and Rodinal for me. I would agree with one of the comments below - my recent experience with KEH has been mixed at best. If they inspect, some of their inspectors need to be retrained.

[dude_and_film]

late to the party but dang thank u so much
not only this video also the rest of the series!!
huge help!
keep shooting :D

[TheDarkplace]

You again!
I landed on another of your videos randomly.
It's a sign!
SUBSCRIBED.

[robbiemer]

Good info and well presented, thank you!
Are these broad comparisons applicable to different sizes of the same film? IE, 120 or 4x5? For now the only processing I am doing is for my large format camera and, for me, that is HP5+ and HC-110. That's been for the last two years or so while I learn what to expect from my camera and the HP5+ film. I am now looking at some slower film and a couple of the developer choices look interesting. Maybe. The reasons I decided on HC-110 are still a valid consideration for me and wouldn't really change just because I'm adding another film to my options. I chose the HC-110 based on its decent looking results (though, I was looking at on line versions of negatives to make that call, so it really was a bit of a guess), long shelf life, and relative low cost. In the long ago, I used D-76 and really didn't like the mixing process.
I am currently using it as a one shot developer at 1:31 and getting good consistent results. But the Rodinal results you shared with us are tempting...

[timb.]

Thank you very much for producing these videos. They are very informative and helpful.

[noogie]

Awesome video. Thank you so much for making!

[djnato]

I have used nothing but Tmax Dev for the past six years. Once my current stock runs out I will be making the switch to Xtol as I shoot mainly Tri-X. The smoothness and tonal range via Xtol + Tri-X is something that is much more desirable.

[markhou]

I had decent results with ilfosol 3.. Planning to try rodinal with kentmere now!