Legacy Pro / Eco Pro is distributed by FS Distribution (ie Freestyle), it says so right on the label of the chemical package.
Digitaltruth.com is the website that hosts the Massive Development Chart. Their US address is in Houston. They also distribute some apps (like darkroom timers), and they host a large collection of different manufacturer's data sheets for film, developers, etc. Some of them have the digitaltruth watermark on the PDFs and most don't. I don't know who runs Digitaltruth, or why Freestyle uses the datasheet that has DT's watermark on it (because I think Freestyle owns the Eco-Pro brand, and I don't know who owns DT). But it doesn't really matter. You can get the datasheets either from digitaltruth.com or Freestyle.
Yes, I have been using Kodak's published times for XTOL at 1+1 to process the Eco-Pro film developer, with good results.Just treat Eco-Pro ascorbic acid developer like Xtol. That's what they formulated it to be like. There are times for 1:1 dilutions in the massive dev chart. Like anything in the massive dev chart, it's a starting point. The overview says, https://www.digitaltruth.com/products/ecopro_overview.php
"eco•pro Film Developer is a powder b&w film developer for very high image quality, fine grain and sharpness equivalent in quality and results to Kodak Xtol.
Development data for Xtol can be used for all films.
Dilutions: 1+0 (stock), 1+1, 1+2, 1+3."
No it's not the same as an incredibly detailed Kodak Technical Bulletin. They probably don't have the staffing level that Kodak once had to write all those technical bulletins.
I belive that the Legacy Pro is a House brand of Freestyle Photo. the eco-pro seems to be a sub brand of that
they sell to many dealers via their http://www.fsdistribution.biz/ sub business.
Legcy Eco Pro is also sold by B&H,maybe others, so I doubt it is a house brand.
Freestyle sells many of their House brands to other reailers via their FSdistribution Business, Arista, Legacy-Pro, Holga. being the most common. They naturaly don't blow their horn on that side of the business. I believe that they are also the US market distributor for Foma, and posibly AdoxLegcy Eco Pro is also sold by B&H,maybe others, so I doubt it is a house brand.
It is complicated with Freestyle house brands, because Freestyle sells them in their store, and distributes them to other retailers.
It is interesting that Freestyle maintains their own list of times and temps for various combinations of films and developers - similar to The Massive Development Chart which is maintained by digitaltruth. So when there are discrepencies, it is still not clear which data set is more likely to be more reliable for the eco-pro developer.
the digitaltruth charts seems to accept submissions from many users, and sometimes they are inconsistent even for the same film in the same developer. they don't make a bad starting point, but read the footnotes.
I would probably start with the time that Freestyle suggests. their name is on the bottle.
If I had thought to look at one of the MSDS documents, I would have seen that the Distributor for the eco-pro developer is clearly shown as: "Freestyle Photographic Supplies, 5124 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90027" What is less clear to me is why digitaltruth is the copyright holder for some of the eco-pro information sheets.
Or maybe not. In an email reply I got from Freestyle's Customer Service, I was told: "EcoPro Film developer was designed by the same person who runs the Massive Dev Chart, so he might have more info available."
Or maybe not. In an email reply I got from Freestyle's Customer Service, I was told: "EcoPro Film developer was designed by the same person who runs the Massive Dev Chart, so he might have more info available." But I was not told that person's name or how to contact them. So Freestyle seemed to be suggesting that digitaltruth might have a stronger connection to the eco-pro brand than Freestyle?
FS distribution is Freestyle's distribution arm.
I believe that Freestyle used to distribute Kentmere products in the US, prior to Kentmere being purchased by Harman Technology. As such Freestyle are/were the owners of the Kentmereusa domain name.
Freestyle may also be the distributors of the Legacy Pro and Eco Pro lines.
Those may actually be house brands for Freestyle as well - I'm not sure.
I've heard, but don't know for sure, that some or all of the Legacy Pro products are or were manufactured by the entity that made Unicolor products as well.
And there is a good chance that that manufacturing entity was making some of the post 2019 Kodak branded black and white photo chemistry for Kodak Alaris, prior to that business being sold to Sino Promise Holdings.
Confused yet?
Photo chemistry is, to a great extent, not made by the entities whose name is on the bottle or package.
And in many cases, any information is more likely to come from the entity that sells the product than the entity that makes it. Certainly that applies to Ilford branded photo chemicals.
The days of vertical integration - one entity designing, manufacturing, packaging, distributing, supporting and sometimes retailing a product are mostly long gone.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?