Beutler developer

[Julio1fer]

I had developed my last film in Beutler in about July 1968. Last weekend, after 40 years almost to the day, and because of Les' inspiration, I used again Beutler film developer.  Reason: I'm getting tired of hunting around town for packed developers mix, and I have a flask of  Metol to be used. Also I like to try something new once in a while. So I mixed the old days A and B solution.

Beutler was my staple developer in my teenager days, usually in combination with FP4, Agfa Isopan 21 o Plus X. It is a very simple developer, probably the cheapest non-alternative you can make -  Metol in low concentration, a lot of sodium carbonate and some sulfite, but not enough to dissolve grain noticeably. The results may be described as something in between D-76 and Rodinal grainwise, with a bit of compensation added, and acutance increased in low ISO film. It is hard to block highlights and you usually get good shadow detail unless you really mess exposure. I believe it is quite optimal for low ISO films, such as Pan F.

There aren't many developing times published. My experiment with Lucky SHD - 12 minutes at 18 C, EI 100 worked nicely.

I tried a whole roll with a series of frames, each shot at 100, 50 and 200. All the frames were usable, and the ISO 100 series was really good.  The negs went to the pro lab, since two of the frames were good enough to get prints. I promise to  post images as soon as I get them.

Any member has tried Kodak TMX in Beutler?

[OleTj]

I don't use TMX, so I can't help you there. But I haven't yet found a film that isn't capable of delivering stellar results in Beutler's high Definition metol Developer (I have a few other Beutler recipes), or Neofin blau which is a slightly modified commercial variant of the same.

It seems to give smoother midtones than Rodinal, with more "bite" than D-76. The fact that it also tends to give decent results with semi-stand development with those scene/film combinations that require this treatment is only an additional bonus. So it's definitely one of my favorite film developers.