Kodak Xtol - questions & thoughts vs ID11

[danegermouse]

i'm sure that you probably have all the info you need but i would say that xtol is at least comparable to d-76 id-11 if not more reliable. i have only used as one shot so can't comment on replenished developing but i can say that i live in nth qld in australia and it is very hot up here. rarely gets below 26 degrees and regularly gets over 35 degrees in the summer, not to mention the humidity in the tropics. xtol has lasted well over 6 months stored as stock solution and the the fine grain results after storage are better than d-76. it may not be the best developer for any one film but if you are using it as a one-film-solves-all then it is a very solid choice. tri-x, delta, efke, apx100 have all worked well for me.

dane.

[Sirius Glass]

i'm sure that you probably have all the info you need but i would say that xtol is at least comparable to d-76 id-11 if not more reliable. i have only used as one shot so can't comment on replenished developing but i can say that i live in nth qld in australia and it is very hot up here. rarely gets below 26 degrees and regularly gets over 35 degrees in the summer, not to mention the humidity in the tropics. xtol has lasted well over 6 months stored as stock solution and the the fine grain results after storage are better than d-76. it may not be the best developer for any one film but if you are using it as a one-film-solves-all then it is a very solid choice. tri-x, delta, efke, apx100 have all worked well for me.

dane.

Put all of your chemicals and in the refrigerator of an hour or an hour and a half before processing the film ... it will be below 75º.

Steve

[Robert Budding]

Put all of your chemicals and in the refrigerator of an hour or an hour and a half before processing the film ... it will be below 75º.

Steve

A water bath with ice in it will cool chemicals much faster than placing them in a refrigerator.

I wouldn't put chemicals in a refrigerator that contains food.

[Gerald C Koch]

The bomb-out business seems to have been a failure of the 1L packets (which have been discontinued for ages). I've heard some folks suggest that the ascorbic acid can sometimes get degraded by poor water, and we sure have lots of crap in the water around here, so I habitually use distilled, which is pretty cheap.

Kodak was rather vague as to the exact problem. At one time the packaging machine was said to be not sealing the 1l bags correctly and air oxidation was the problem. Another reason stated was the difficulting in the automatic measurement of small quantities of some chamicals for the 1l size.

"Sudden death" was probably caused by the Fenton reaction which is catalysed by iron or copper ions. The contamination can come from tap water but was more likely caused by impurities in one or more of the chamicals that Kodak used. Photograde chemicals may not be very pure compared to other grades as the standard only says that they must be free of photograhically active impurities. Until the widespread use of ascorbic acid small amounts of iron or copper were not considered to be important. The problem was fixed by the addition of an appropriate chelating agent to ascorbate formulas.

[Tony-S]

I've been really happy with XTOL and Fuji Acros, Ilford HP5+, and Fuji Neopan 1600. I dilute 1:2 and rate the first 2 at box speed. Neopan I use rate EI 1000 - 1600, depending on the subject. Shadow detail is very good at 1000, not bad at 1600.

Robert, is that 1 part xtol plus 1 part water, or 2 parts water?

[JohnArs]

If I have a magic bullet then it's XTOL!
Take XTOL and never look back, is my motto;--)))

Cheers Armin

[Robert Budding]

Robert, is that 1 part xtol plus 1 part water, or 2 parts water?

1 part stock XTOL solution plus 2 parts water.