With respect to others, I find nothing shoddy in Rodinal: it is the oldest of modern developers and is marking its 115th anniversary this year. D-76, the next-newest, only came along in 1926. Sure, you get grain-like-golfballs with Rodinal, but it is exceedingly consistent and exceedingly predictable and, pace Richard, it also produces a mild speed increase. As Ctein pointed out in the late 1980's, Rodinal and TMX are a really happy combination and push chemistry about as far as it can go. (I forget his recommendations but I believe it was 1+25 at 8 minutes at 68 degrees real temperature and none of that fake Centigrade stuff. I do have his original article in my darkroom stuff downstairs in the garage, but that is a matter of six or seven large boxes and I nae be in the mood for box-diving at the now, as they might say back in Perthshire).
I love XTOL and have both used the Kodak packs and have mixed it from scratch. It is a marvelous developer in many regards. I also like D-76, which I generally mix from scratch. I do not share Aaron's passion for HC 100 though I have never gotten poor results from it. In lesser order, I have also used and enjoyed T-Max developer and Ilfosol.
My primary developer, though, has long been the FX-14 developer produced by Crawford, one of the many he developed.
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