Isn't HC-110 the only commercially available standard developer which is a liquid? Everything else I've looked at has been specialized: DDX (pushing), Ilfosol, Rodinal, SPUR, FX-39 (sharpness). The one I haven't looked at was Clayton F76, but an old thread I found here said it's close/identical to DDX.
Essentially if one needs an easily avilable "liquid D76" there's not much else to recommend.
All the labs I know use syrup HC-110 for low volume B/W film development with manual or semiautomatic (Jobo) processing. Excellent keeping properties, versatility (works with any film), cost and short development times (B dilution).
When Kodak Alaris sold its photochemical division to sinopromise, Kodak's factory in China was also sold to sinopromise. Therefore, the predecessor of sinopromise's factory was the Kodak Chemicals China Factory, and the personnel, assets and equipment were all retained by sinopromise.I agree, which is why I'm curious about the exact nature of the agreement between Kodak and PSI. In truth, we may be making this more complicated than it needs to be. What Alan Fischer said was that PSI had become the "worldwide licensee for Kodak Professional chemistry." To be a "licensee" implies that you've agreed to manufacture a specific product over which the licensor holds intellectual property rights. In my mind, that's to be distinguished from a simple "branding agreement," in which you manufacture a close-ish approximation of a product and stick another company's logo on the package.
So, for example, "Kodak" presumably still owns (or maybe not?) the patent on the yellow, high-viscosity HC-110 that many long for. If Kodak was going to enter into a licensing agreement with PSI to make HC-110, it wouldn't make any sense for PSI to produce anything other than that exact same stuff, since it's quite clear that several companies have already managed to make their own clones of HC-110 (albeit low-viscosity ones) without the need for such an agreement.
This inexorably leads me to another question: Which Kodak entity actually owns/owned the patents on Kodak photochemistry? Are such patents still in force, or have they expired? I believe it was Kodak Alaris that sold the photochemicals division to Sino Promise. Does that necessarily mean that Kodak Alaris owned the patents? And for that matter, was Sino Promise manufacturing Kodak photochemicals in accordance with the original patented Kodak formulations, or were they simply making clones and sticking the Kodak logo on the outside? I'm betting @MattKing and others have some insight on this.
All of which is fine but not all that special, at least for the home darkroom worker. All B&W developers - well many - are versatile. D76 certainly is. Price is pretty irrelevant at home user quantities at least for things like D-76, D-23, etc. Short development time I actually consider a drawback in the home darkroom. Being, say, 15 seconds off makes a bigger different percentage wise in a four minute development time than in a 10 minute one.
Excellent keeping I get - I mentioned that. But as far as I can see that's the ONLY particular advantage for the hobbyist. I'm not knocking it, I just don't see as anything all that special either.
I did notice that at least one product page mentions a data sheet, where the link goes to Kodak Alaris. the "about US" does confirm that they are proud of their former life as "Unicolor" (as frankly they should be.) And at the same time indicate they are the source of many of the CineStill chemistry kits.
I belive the press relase talked bout "1st Quarter" jan, feb and March.Anyone seen anything more about this development?
Isn't HC-110 the only commercially available standard developer which is a liquid? Everything else I've looked at has been specialized: DDX (pushing), Ilfosol, Rodinal, SPUR, FX-39 (sharpness). The one I haven't looked at was Clayton F76, but an old thread I found here said it's close/identical to DDX.
Essentially if one needs an easily avilable "liquid D76" there's not much else to recommend.
I've never used Ilford DDX, but I use Claytons F76+ weekly. One thing for certain, DDX is much more expensive than Clayton's F76+. I also think that Clayton's F76+ delivers negatives that have a tonality very similar to D76, but is provided in an easily diluted liquid. For example: I prefer Clayton's F76+ to TMAX for TMAX 100 and TMAX 400 films because I think that the resulting negatives have a tonality that is much closer to what I obtain with D76. The only "drawback" to Clayton's F76+ might be a shorter shelf life than either TMAX or DDX developers (but I've done no real comparisons here as I go through developer at a reasonable clip).
Where do you get your Claytons F76+ from? I usually buy liquid fixer from Freestyle so I suppose that would be an option. I use XTOL almost exclusively for several years. I used to be able to get everything locally but that's all changed in the last few years.
I also purchase from Freestyle. In addition to offering this developer in 32 oz. and 1 gallon quantities, Freestyle's Arista film developers are Clayton's (check their data sheets), and these are available in 12 oz. bottles, if working with smaller quantities of developer suits your processing needs.
I think Freestyle's manufacturing division may be making the Clayton products?? Either way looks like a good product.
Other than converting sizes occasionally, I do not believe that Freestyle has ANY manufacturing Capability. back in the 60s they did slit and perforate some areo film, and way back they sold Movie ends, spooled to 100ft loads. (they started in 1946 selling Military surplus film) if you download the MSDS for most of the Freestyle chemicals - the fine print indicates that the source is Clayton, or PSI.I think Freestyle's manufacturing division may be making the Clayton products?? Either way looks like a good product.
Other than converting sizes occasionally, I do not believe that Freestyle has ANY manufacturing Capability. back in the 60s they did slit and perforate some areo film, and way back they sold Movie ends, spooled to 100ft loads. (they started in 1946 selling Military surplus film) if you download the MSDS for most of the Freestyle chemicals - the fine print indicates that the source is Clayton, or PSI.
I think the virtue of HC-110 was that it was a very good compromise on speed, Grain, Acuity and contrast, while being a product that you could use even if your development activities were more in Bursts than every day. For the labs and (newspapers back in the day) it could be a substitute for several "Classic" formulas, and was easy to set up a replenished line when the HC-110 replenisher was still available.
Welcome news. It seems no one is producing RA-4 developer these days
Bellini
Except of course Fuji + Fuji Hunt with a pretty big output, probably Champion (since it's still available in quantity), there must be a sizeable Chinese manufacturer but they likely supply mostly their domestic market, and then there's of course the smaller ones focusing on home users such as Adox, Bellini etc.
I'm not entirely sure how big the Bellini range
Except of course Fuji + Fuji Hunt with a pretty big output, probably Champion (since it's still available in quantity), there must be a sizeable Chinese manufacturer but they likely supply mostly their domestic market, and then there's of course the smaller ones focusing on home users such as Adox, Bellini etc.
Tried ordering recently. Champion discontinued according to Pakor, all the other main retailers listing Fuji RA developers as discontinued or out of stock. Only thing I can find fresh is full 5L kits or a fuji developer mini lab cartridge from one retailer and some 'silverpixel' from freestylephoto which does not ship to Canada. Blix is readily available.
Rather use premixed but may just end my making own brew, I have most of the chemicals
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