Ilford ID 11 Film Developer Powder for Photos - 1 Litre

It must be about 35 years since I last developed a film, but I decided to try out my trusty old Pentax with a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus 400 ASA. This developer is easy to use- just dissolve the A and B powders in 750ml of warm tap water at 40°C (it takes a bit of stirring to get all the solids to dissolve), then make up to 1L, and this is your 1* stock solution. You can either use it at this strength, or dilute it to 1/2, or 1/4 for economy. Generally, however, you get finer grain if used at stock concentration, and slightly coarser grain the more it's diluted. It also goes off more rapidly if stored in diluted form. The product comes with plenty of useful information, such as a development time chart for several popular types of black & white film, including push-processing times. There's also a temperature reference table which shows how much to alter the time, depending on the temperature of your solution. Finally, there's a table telling you how much to increase the development time each time the solution is re-used. I've only used it for one film so far, and the results were excellent. I exposed the film at normal speed (400 ASA) and developed for 7 minutes in 1* stock at 21°C. I then used Ilford Rapid Fixer (1/5) to fix the film for 5 minutes, washing twice between the two (I didn't use stop bath), and again twice after fixing. Oh, and my 33-year-old camera still works fine! Update- after using the developer twice, a fine black precipitate has formed on the bottom of the bottle. Next time I develop a film, I'm not going to risk using this (even though the instructions say it can be re-used up to 10 times), I'll throw it away & use some fresh developer.

Can't get this developer from my local camera shop any more but it's my preferred one as I am an occasional user only and this makes 1 litre which lasts 6 months to a year in an concertina bottle. Price was really good and delivery super fast.

ID11 has always been a top developer. In a world of change ID11 still remains one of the best.

I understand that Ilford chemicals are among the best.

ID-11 is a superb all rounder for B&W development but like most things in photography understanding what results you want will decide which developer you use. ID-11 is a fine grain developer meaning it doesn't enhance the grain structure inherent in the film. Solvents in the developer work away the edges of the silvers crystals as they are developed to keep everything smooth. This effect is best obtained when using the developer at stock strength. ID-11 can be used at 1:1 and 1:3 dilutions also for economy. Grain is a little more apparent in negatives developed at 1:3 in particular but still remarkably smooth. 1:1 strength offers a good compromise between economy and smooth grain. ID-11 is not the finest grain developer you can get but it's so versatile, easy to use, forgiving, cheap and produces such great results that it's hard to say anything bad about it. In my experience ID-11 is also very long lived. There are some quite strict sounding guidelines about storing ID-11 to avoid oxidation and I think it's generally regarded to have a shelf life of months rather than years. Ideally it should be stored in bottles that have had all the air expelled from the empty space to keep it fresh. Now I'm not advocating going against the recommendations but I've had a half filled gallon container of ID-11 in my garden for 3 years - it's seen severe weather, heat, cold (it's even quite brown now!)etc and yet I developed a roll in it the other day (with standard development times) and the results were as if the stuff was fresh (see image of feet above - I boosted the contrast a bit) Great results are guaranteed if you've done your job right in camera so this is an easy recommendation.

Used for processing black and white roll films. Have used it for years

I develop all of my film using this product. The grain is very subtle due to the metol. The only down side is that Metol makes the processing time quite a bit longer. If your mixing your working solution 1 to 3 like I do then you have to developer for 20 minutes. But NO GRAIN!!!!!

Ottimo acquisto

only its black not siepa ,easyer to use and mutch more efficient than coffie. still working on it though,beginner.

All good