Cooltone developer

[ajuk]

I just bought used it for the first time today and I just don't see any difference from the normal Ilford developer, Do I need to start using FB paper to see any difference?

[Roger Hicks]

I just bought used it for the first time today and I just don't see any difference from the normal Ilford developer, Do I need to start using FB paper to see any difference?

No. It's pretty subtle. Compare two prints side by side under daylight and you should see it -- but use it with cooltone paper too. For REAL cooling, use some gold toner afterwards.

Put it this way: it showed up OK in repro in Shutterbug. (This information from Frances who knows a lot more than I).

Cheers,

R.

[ajuk]

OK, its just in the review for it in B&W photographer, I noticed that the FB paper the reviewer used had a much more dramatic response to the CT developer.

[Les McLean]

I also use Cooltone Developer with Warmtone paper and get a very cold almost blue print colour.

[Roger Hicks]

I also use Cooltone Developer with Warmtone paper and get a very cold almost blue print colour.

Dear Les,

That comes from living so far north. Down here in the northern Aquitaine it's not so marked. (This from Frances, who sends her love).

Cheers mate,

R.

[pentaxuser]

With RC paper, Multigrade and Cooltone, both with Cooltone Dev I still found the difference fairly subtle unless a direct comparison is done. However do the same shot, using both papers with Cooltone Dev and it becomes pretty obvious.

Cooltone paper with Cooltone Dev seemed particularly suited to shots of machinery/metallic objects. A friend's BSA Lightning came out particularly well.

pentaxuser

[David Brown]

I also use Cooltone Developer with Warmtone paper and get a very cold almost blue print colour.

Well, I might not call it blue, but I got the most marked difference from Ilford's Cooltone developer with their warmtone paper when I did a recent developer/paper comparison. However, in practice, if I wanted cool/cold tones, I likely wouldn't start with warmtone paper.

[pentaxuser]

Les' comment raises an interesting question. Does Warmtone paper in Cooltone dev produce as cold a print as Cooltone paper in Cooltone dev? David Brown's comments would suggest not in his experience but this is an inference on my part based on his last sentence. If not are there other compensating features with Les' combination?

This is esentially a Scottish( value for money) question in that unless there are compensating features, it is much cheaper to produce cold tones with Cooltone paper. Cooltone paper is about the same price as Multigrade IV whereas Warmtone is considerably more expensive. At least in RC which is what I use.

pentaxuser

[psvensson]

I haven't tried Ilford's cold tone developer, but I tried Clayton Ultra Cold and home-brewed Max Muir Blue-Black developer on a variety of RC papers a while back. The coldest results came from Forte papers, especiallly Polywarmtone! That is one heck of a paper. Polygrade went pretty cold too. I tried all three flavors of Ilford MG. Cooltone paper turned out less cold than Warmtone, if IIRC. The Max Muir formulation gave a stronger tone than the commercial developer.

[Rob Archer]

I've just discovered Kentmere Bromide in Ilford Cooltone. A really lovely cool black but not quite blue-black. I've found it needs a full development (min. 3 mins in fresh dev at 1+9)

Kentona is also very nice in it - quite a 'plummy' black.

Stand by for a print scan (if I can get my scanner to work!)

Rob