Re: Help with Xtol development times for Ilford SFX in Jobo.

[Fred Greenspan <greenspan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the warning, but I haven't found this to be true. Unless you mean
to stay away from Xtol with IR films, in which case I have no experience. I
have been using Xtol since it came out and have processed hundreds of rolls of
film with it, using the 1:2 dilution. This included Kodak, Fuji, Agfa, and
mostly Ilford B&W films. It is the most pleasing developer, to my taste, that
I have used and it's shelf keeping properties are great. Of course I use it
one shot in my Jobo. No replenishing, no reusing. There were some early
problems with the packaging on the smaller size packets that have supposedly
been corrected. You could easily detect these packets as the powder inside one
the envelopes would be caked up. This might be what you are referring to.
Thanks anyway!-Fred

PHOTO-TECH wrote:

>         I would strongly recommend steering clear of Xtol.
> It's composition is somewhat unstable and has caused many
> photographers to regret having tried it. And I'm one.
> 
>         If you do in fact want to use Xtol, don't dilute it
> beyond 1:1. Use only distilled water to max it up. And prior
> to development, snip the leader of the film off and drop it
> into the developer to make absolutely certain that it is
> active.
> 
>         For a little background on the issues of Xtol I can
> only refer you to www.deja.com where you can look through
> the search engine/archives of the USENET groups such as
> rec.photo.darkroom.
> 
>         IMO, (and many others) D-76D, D-76H or Microphen has
> Xtol beat in nearly every manner except granularity. And
> particularly in the one area I don't tolerate any error :
> dependability.
> 
> Regards,
> 
>                             John S. Douglas
> Photographer    Web Master       Darkroom Wizard
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