It is more expensive on a roll-for-roll costing, but I've also found that it's cheaper to buy a bottle than the more economical developers. It's a false economy, but sometimes it works for the wallet that way. Ilfotec DD-X is one of the very best film developers for pushing film. This developer is the perfect balance between solvent action (reducing the size of grains) and shadow enhancement.

I personally don’t ask for any apology. As far as I am concerned he , like anyone else , is welcome to interact with us here if he’s happy to do so in a pleasant manner….. that’s all that is asked of him. Well, I've used Rodinal and HC110 and ID-11 - as you know Rodinal and HC110 act differently to developers like ID-11, D-76, Microphen etc. - and now I want to compare those results to DDX at various dilutions without wasting too much film... If I have a reasonable starting point that others have successfully used, maybe I'll waste less film than if I just guess... if that's OK with you?

Paper

So interestingly, whilst I was developing the 2 test rolls I also had a roll of HP5 shot at 1600 to do. I decided to dev it in DD-X. Dilution tends to allow the highlight development to exhaust in between agitations, an effect which will be enhanced by increasing the time in between agitations (what is known as "stand" and "semi-stand" development). Such increases in time can also lead to muddling of consistent tones in an image due to the buildup of byproducts from the development process (such as "bromides", etc.), and this problem is worse with some developers yet essentially non-existent with others. However, the dilution alone along with consistent 5 second agitations at one minute intervals will generally still tend to improve shadow detail and highlight separation because of the dilution of the developers.

Mamiya m645 – Mamiya-Sekor C 1:2.8 f=80mm – Kodak TMax 400 @ ASA-400 – Ilford Ilfotec DD-X (1+4) 8:00 @ 20C Mamiya m645 – Mamiya-Sekor C 1:2.8 f=80mm – Kodak TMax 400 @ ASA-400 – Ilford Ilfotec DD-X (1+4) 8:00 @ 20C Mamiya m645 – Mamiya-Sekor C 1:2.8 f=80mm – Kodak TMax 400 @ ASA-400 – Ilford Ilfotec DD-X (1+4) 8:00 @ 20C Mamiya m645 – Mamiya-Sekor C 1:2.8 f=80mm – Kodak TMax 400 @ ASA-400 – Ilford Ilfotec DD-X (1+4) 8:00 @ 20C While the grain structure doesn’t seem to be anymore prominent between the two diluted developers, I feel the HC-110B dilution added a little more grain making the photos sharper. I am not sure exactly how developers work, but it is my understanding that the more you dilute it, the more grain you get. Kodak HC-110B Ilfotec DD-X After an exhausting afternoon scrolling through years' worth of posts on various forums, I'm just about to slash my wrists. There seems to be some consensus on Delta 400 and Delta 3200 especially when pushed, but almost nothing regarding Delta 100 at box speed...Pyro - 5 ml + 995 ml water - 15+15 with 30 seconds stir or inversions at the start and the end of the first 15 minutes. If you are using 500 ml for developing only one roll of either 35mm or 120, you still need to use a minimum of 5 ml (not 2.5 ml) of 510 Pyro.

As you can see from the above DDX recipe, my cost per roll goes down with SSD. Now, I use 15 ml per roll or 25 ml per two rolls (or 12.5 ml per roll). I get 1,000ml / 25 = 80 rolls if I develop two at a time or 1,000 / 25 = 66 rolls if I develop one at a time compared to using 60ml per roll in normal development. This makes DDX quite affordable to use regularly. You can always add more contrast, but removing it is much harder. DD-X helped create a detailed image with rich tonality. Photo taken on Ilford HP5 with a Hasselblad 503cx and 150mm f/4 lens What are the downsides of DD-X? Ilford Multigrade Fibre Based variable contrast papers. They provide a powerful creative tool. Having different levels of contrast in parts of the same print seems to create images with an extra dimension compared to single grade papers. Stop Bath The solvent action in DD-X is fairly low compared to developers like HC-110, D-76, and ID-11, which can cause a noticeable reduction in image sharpness.I spent the latter part of 2018 and all of 2019 with Rodinal, and I made the descision to spend 2020 with HC-110, but to be honest, after my first few rolls, I found it delivered far superior results to Rodinal for the films I shot and the look I liked. HP5 in Rodinal looks terrible to my eye so it's not included here.

In fact, the only developer on the market that pushes film better is Ilford’s Microphen, which is a niche developer that comes in powdered format rather than liquid. In Semi-Stand Development (SSD), the approach is the same with one minor variation. Going with the Ilfosol 3 example above, I would do 2 x 30 minutes and stir 10 seconds initially and 10 seconds before the second 30-minute time slot. Nothing else changes. Why break it down into two slots instead of just letting it stand for 30 minutes? Depending on the chemistry I am using, I may want to enhance the effect of that chemistry slightly. So, the second stir at the midpoint works harder to produce the desired effect.Because of its performance, DD-X is one of the most common developers found at professional film labs around the world for a simple reason: this is the developer that will give photographers the best negatives even in challenging lighting scenarios. In my own uses, I’ve found DD-X to be the absolute best developer for pushing and pulling, especially with t-grain films like Ilford Delta 3200 and Kodak P3200.