Best keeping paper developer??

[john_s]

Maybe not as long as some of the suggestions, but home mixed ID-78 is very good in a Nova slot processor. I use it since Agfa's Neutol-WA disappeared (in this country anyway).

[MattKing]

Lillian:

I use Polymax T (aka Liquid Dektol in some parts of the world). The concentrate is quite long lived, and being liquid, it is very convenient.

Glazers sells it at $9.50 per US quart bottle. Beau Photo will order it for you (but I don't know at what cost).

Glazers also has Ethol LPD on its website: http://www.glazerscamera.com/store/f...on-liquid.html and http://www.glazerscamera.com/store/f...on-powder.html

[Photo Engineer]

Liquidol, from the Formulary, was designed to exceed Dektol in shelf life and in tray life and capacity. In tests, I was able to get 2X longer tray life or 2X greater capacity. This is in direct comparisons of working strength solutions.

PE

[Oren Grad]

I've had good luck with Ilford PQ Universal and Ilford Multigrade. I buy them in the large jugs, which I may not use up for more than a year. They do gradually darken, so obviously some oxidation is occurring. But at the standard 1+9 dilution I've never seen any change in performance in the tray before using up a bottle.

[polyglot]

I have a half-full 5L bottle of Ilford Multigrade concentrate that would have to be at least 6-8 years old (someone abandoned it in a club darkroom, I grabbed it after a couple years). Still works fine though it's about apple-juice colour.

[brian steinberger]

I'd go LPD replenished. I used to like 130 but had too many problems with bad glycin and such and it is quite a bit more expensive than LPD. LPD is the best value and most flexible developer out there I believe.

[zsas]

Liquidol, from the Formulary, was designed to exceed Dektol in shelf life and in tray life and capacity.

Another shout out to Liquidol...

[cdholden]

ansco 130 ( formulary 130 paper developer ) lasts forever ...
i buy between 5 and 7 gallons every 12months,
and by the end of the 7th gallon is it still going strong a year later ...
dilute and in a tray it lasts about 30 days or so they say

just make sure you mix it when you get the kit of chemistry because the glycin tends to go bad faster than
anything else ... but once it is mixed you are in good shape.

john

John,
What's your experience with that 30 day limit? I just mixed up a 4L batch (and decanted to smaller bottles) this weekend and went through ~20 sheets of 8x10 Emaks-888 (Nuance, etc). I mixed it 1:1 but after the first few test strips, decided I wanted more contrast. I started with about 600ml of 1:1, then added about 350ml of stock to boost contrast to where I wanted it. It looked nice, but I want to play with that combo some more before making any judgement on it. I was happy enough to want to continue working with it. I just hope I can use the same tray of developer when I get to turn the lights out again in 2 weeks.

Chris

[cmo]

Now I remember that other name... in East Germany they had a developernamed N 113 that lasts a very long time, even in trays. It's still available as Calbe N 113 (powder, very cheap).

[hrst]

I use Dektol mixed two years ago without any problems, stored at room temp (23degC). (I am surprised it still works perfectly.)

I have 5-10x the (conservative) shelf life specified by the manufacturers and 2-3x the shelf life compared to others here at APUG for practically all processes and all chemicals.

The answer is, again, very simple:

squeezed PET plastic bottles.

But for some reason, most people want that their chemicals go bad, because it gives more chances to discuss shelf-life related matters . So, people insist playing around with their half-full brown glass bottles and lousy HDPE plastic bottles with leaking caps, even though the sustainable solution is just around any corner! So, I know only one other guy here who is using squeezed PET plastic bottles. He seems to have even longer shelf lives!

And, if you want to go even further, dropping the temperature is a very good way. Just don't go too near to the freezing point.