>>3429256>Is xtol worth the pita of fucking around with powder?Is it a pita to mix coffee and sugar powder to make a coffee? Literally it takes 5' to take 4L of water, pour bag A, stir, pour bag B, top off with another litre of water and you're set with 5L of Xtol, good for 20-50 films depending on dilution.
I use Xtol almost exclusively for every film, unless I want something very special purpose.
It pushes great, it has the finest grain of all general purpose developers, it works with every film - fast and slow, traditional and T-grain. It's flexible too. You want the finest grain and/or biggest push? Use stock. You want the highest accutance? Dilute at 1+3. Something in between? 1+1 or 1+2 got your back. And of course it's cheap on top of that, ~$12 for 5L. And easy to transport the sachets if you're flying somewhere, can't so that shit with liquids.
I only reach for something different if:
1. I want the finest, smoothest grain possible, at the expense of speed and accutance. Then I go for Perceptol
2. I want compensating effects - with cubic grain films - where the contrast changes a lot from scene to scene and exposures are all over the place: then it's a two-bath like Diafine
3. I want high accutance - with slow, cubic grain films in larger formats - at the expense of grain and speed: then a surface developer like rodinal or HC-110.
Honestly, for the last 2 years or so, I didn't need anything else other than Xtol, except Perceptol a couple times.
>>3429366>So theoretically the worst stuff should be the stuff I use to dev.He means a different thing. What makes you thing the powder is homogenous? It has a shitton of substances, like sulfite, ascorbic acid, dimezone, other preservatives etc.
How can you ensure you take every component in the correct proportion when you scoop out a spoonful of powder? Even by gravity alone, the heavier powder crystals will concentrate more on the bottom of the bag. That's why you're supposed to mix whole bags.
