Last weekend it rained a lot here in NYC, and since shooting was a dismal prospect, I decided on some darkroom entertainment. I'd read the article by Patrick Gainer on Ed's unblinkingeye.com site discussing l-ascorbic acid developers. I realized I had all the necessary chemicals on hand, so I gave one of his variations a shot.(posted 8236 days ago)What I found really surprised me. I tried his version using metol combined with sodium hydroxide, borax and l-ascorbic acid. I was intrigued by this since earlier tests I had done with vit-C revealed excellent sharpness. Well, not only were the results exceedingly sharp, but the tonality was beautiful. And the grain, which I expected to be on the harsh side, was not harsh at all; it was smooth and very fine with a tight pattern. This is a really outstanding developer. Sharpness-wise it's definitely equal to anything I've seen, including PMK, Rodinal or FG7. I also tested Ilfosol-S at the same time, and this stuff was much sharper and had tighter grain with better tonality. Moreover, its easy and cheap to make. Development times are the same as D-76, either straight or 1:1.
I don't know why this stuff hasn't had more attention. It's really outstanding. Try it!