Many traditional process photographers worry that digital is going to sweep away supplies for the process if they decide to stay with their craft. We love this craft, and certainly intend to stay loyal to the traditional technique even if we do embrace digital as well. We believe digital does ultimately achieve finer quality, but it doesn’t look the same as a fine ‘wet print’. It just looks different, not worse. But if you want to stay with the original look, we are right behind you in maintaining supplies of unique processing solutions available nowhere else. But this is also important to digital workers. Digital camera capture is improving all the time, but for essential 16 bit origination, scanning from film is still the way to go. However, getting the right negative for scanning is critical, as readers of my book ‘Elements of Transition’ will already know. Grain exaggeration through aliasing and the necessary application of image sharpening can transform an apparently fine negative into an unpleasantly grainy digital file. Exactol Lux is proving extremely popular with its stain aiding a smooth low grain scan, and its in-built enhanced edge definition lowering the need for unsharp masking.

However, not all photographers want the extra processing involvement required by tanning/staining developers, and those who are environmentally concerned want to be sure to use solutions with the least impact on the environment during disposal. In fact, in the quantities used by typical amateurs, processing solutions are not really a significant environmental threat. Nevertheless, many people feel that responsibility starts in their own way of life, and they want to live as ‘green’ a life as possible. This especially applies to photographers who picture the very world that can be damaged by environmental irresponsibility. So we worked on a developer that would fulfil that need, and thus moved away from metol/hydroquinone to a phenidone derivative, glycin and ascorbic acid. We have spent some time on this unique formulation. We already have Luxol which we believe provides the finest grain of any commercially available developer without sacrificing definition. New Luxol Eco matches that fine grain and definition. At the same time it gives the same or even slightly greater speed than ‘standard’ metol/hydroquinone/borax developers like D76 or ID11, and it has a normal 9-12 month life though supplied as a liquid for simple 1:9 dilution. It also pushes films like Delta 3200 outstandingly well. So not only is it more eco-friendly, it is outperformed by no other standard developer in the world. The grain is so fine that, in scanning, the grain aliasing effect is particularly well controlled. It is available in the UK only in one litre packs sufficient for thirty three 35mm films from the web site shop (or by post and cheque in the UK. The price is £10 plus shipping. Sorry - the weight makes foreign shipping uneconomic, though we will always arrange to send abroad at whatever the lowest shipping cost is. Just email your needs.