Re: [Leica] Neutol plus

[Christer Almqvist <christer@almqvist.net>]

>for this Neutol plus?. An Ascorbic acid based paper developer? I hate buying
>these liquids and like to mix up my own stuff so I can put my own two cents in
>and save a buck.
>Mark Rabiner
>Has anybody used this stuff it's got a nice Orange and white bottle! 1:9
>or 1:4?
>Now if they just came out with Rodinol for prints we'd really be in business.

Mark, I have used Neutol plus almost excusively for the last two years. In
the beginning I used it 1+4, but later the bottles said it could be used
1+9 and that is what I am using now. Typical times for RC paper then
increase from 50 to 70 secs  (both +/- 10 secs). The 1+4 is said to keep
longer than 1+9 but this is irrelevant to me, I want to use fresh chemistry
so keeping properties are not important to me as I usually throw out the
developer after each session. But I do not mind being able to save half the
cost by waiting a few seconds longer for each print. However, if I do very
few prints in one session, I may store the developer in completely filled,
tightly closed brown glass bottles and it keeps well that way. If I reuse
the solution, and start off early in the morning, it may turn bad very late
at night if I leave it in uncovered trays during the day. Dark yellow is
what it should be, ugly brown is bad.

I use my bare fingers to get the prints out of the solutions and I hold
them for about ten seconds, that is until it starts dripping instead of
flowing off the print. Working like that you certainly feel the advantage
of Vitamin C. Other developers made my fingers slippery, and I had to use
tweezers ( right word?) and I was unhappy with this as they scratched the
prints or  made me drop large prints back into the developer. With regard
to Rodinal, I like that Neutol plus does not have the written hazard
warnings with the ugly pictograms (really makes me scared) and the 3-D
poison symbols that appear on the Rodinal bottles. Still I do not drink the
stuff; I want to be somewhat more than almost alive, if you see what I mean.

Réponses Photo (France) tested Neutol plus in its February 1997 issue with
RC paper and said the tone was a bit warmer than with Multigrade devloper,
and that there was more detail in the shadows. I would not have switched to
it if I did not find it improve the look of my Kodak Polymax prints.

It took us a long time to get you converted to Xtol. How long will it be
with Neutol plus? Keep us posted.