Ilfosol-S

[David Doler]

Anybody else a big fan of Ilfosol-S? I love it but no one seems to use it. Is it the unloved stepchild of the Ilford developer range?

[back alley]

i used to use it all the time.

on mostly delta 400 & 3200.
120 film though.

loved it.

good developer and i like the ease of liquid.

joe

[Roman]

Well, I used it once, and will never again - I experienced the 'sudden death' syndrome (the bane of all ascorbate-based developers), and ruined a roll of film ('sudden death': dev. goes bad suddenly from one film to the next, without any visible clues, like color changes).
And frankly, there's really nothing that makes Ilfosol stand out - a bit sharper than ID11, but not as good as Rodinal, but with rather lagte grain as well (at least that was my experience with HP5+ and FP4+).

Roman

[back alley]

i use most developers as one shot. (except diafine now)

grain was never a problem with the medium format negs.

[Roman]

Joe,
I also used it one-shot - it was the concentrate that suffered from 'sudden death' (and I heard about it from several other users, too).

Roman

[nrb]

Once I bought one bottle and used it with little happiness on Ilford, Kodak and Agfa emulsions. One day I used it on APX and no numbers appeared... Better use Rodinal since it lasts forever and gives much less grain. Or if you don't like grain at all, 1 tablespoon of ID76 in 400 cc of hot water.

[back alley]

Joe,
I also used it one-shot - it was the concentrate that suffered from 'sudden death' (and I heard about it from several other users, too).

Roman

really!
i have never heard of that and it didn't happen to me, thankfully.

i would have been more than a little p.o.'d

joe

[Seele]

Sudden death with Ilfosol S... I know it too welll, and that is the reason why I am not using it anymore.

I feel that the inadequate air-tightness of the bottlecaps used by Ilford is a contributing factor: after all, cardboard does not make a good seal.

[David Doler]

I go through it like water so I haven't experienced sudden death yet. Its easier to deal with than XTOL but it don't store well after it's opened. I was just wondering about how everyone here felt about it. Thank!

[titrisol]

It was an excellent developer for FP4 and APX100.
Neopan SS100 also gave excrellent results.
HP5 looked awfully flat though