I know what you mean, you can spend a lot of time chasing developers, I use mostly Xtol because I like it, and it is still available locally. On Roger's recommendations I bought FX 39, and have mixed results on Foma, plus it really has a short shelf life. As per Ctein, I use Saran wrap under the caps of my developers with much better shelf life. Other brands are just not dense enough to help.
R 09 is more of an ancestor, or so I 've been led to believe, possibly a liberated Agfa formulation from the iron curtain days. It is used 1;40.
I used to use APX and Rodinal exclusively, but then I was shooting all MF. Foma films are terrible in MF, dust in the emulsion, have no idea if they have solved that problem. We had to toss out hundreds of rolls.
I liked the tonality of the Agfa and Rodinal.
I guess I am a bit of a throw-back, but I think there is a lot to learn from old tech.
I thought it odd that Foma discontinued T 800, though perhaps this one was a T grain infringment, though I would think a name change would have helped.
John |
