Hello ladies and gentlemen photographers. I have a dilemma here. For several months I have been using Ilford MG 4 RC paper with Dektol developer. This combination worked fine accept two major inconvenience: I don't like mixing powder chemicals into solution, and resulting prints appeared to be a bit contrasted even though I used filtration extensively. The one thing however that I like about Dektol developer is rich blacks, the blacks are just wonderful. Now yesterday I tried this new for me Agfa Neutol Plus liquid developer with the same Ilford MG 4 RC paper. In this combination I liked the process of mixing chemicals, it's so easy with liquid developer the resulting working solution by itself seemed to be less chemically hazardous than Dektol solution (my own opinion I am not chemist), and it produced beautiful smooth tones in comparison with dektol, especially on ladies faces. But one thing that I hated about Neutol plus developer is blacks. They were not that pitch and I would describe Neutol plus produced blacks as a foggy blacks. Now what should I do. Should I continue to use Neutol Plus developer but with say Cool tone Ilford MG 4 paper (didn't used this paper before). Or should I return to mixing Dektol, but in this case to use Warm tone Ilford MG 4 paper (didn't used this paper either). My task here is to get creme tones with rich (real) blacks with a possible convenience of liquid developers.

Thank you. Sergey.

-- Sergey (roksyserg@aol.com), April 07, 2001

Answers

Try Edwal Ultra Black. I have been very satisfied with the depth of the blacks that this developer produces.

-- Sam (sselkind@home.com), April 08, 2001.

I started a thread about the same thing a while back. I tried Neutol Plus and discovered that development times for good blacks were nigh on 10 minutes.

Someone on that thread mentioned Kodak Polymax developer as being similar to Dektol. They were right. Development times and the depth of the blacks are similar to what I used to get with Dektol (1:1, 3-4 minutes). I still think Dektol produces higher contrast, but... it's a serious pain to mix in my (primitive) darkroom.

Another option I'll probably investigate eventually is Ilford Universal developer (NOT Multigrade). Supposedly it's another harsh hydroquinone soup.

-- John O'Connell (boywonderiloveyou@hotmail.com), April 08, 2001.

I suggest Edwal Platinum II. However, I have found it increasingly hard to find. I recently (friday last) logged onto the Falcon website and went to their Edwal site to find that Edwal has been sold to BKA. The BKA site does not mention this. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

-- Robert Orofino (minotaur1949@aol.com), April 08, 2001.

If you are comfortable ordering on-line or by mail/phone, I just got a large bottle of Platinum II from Adorama (www.adorama.com)

-- MR (reynard75@hotmail.com), April 08, 2001.