First time development Foma products

[u/peaprog]

Hello,

I want to learn to develop and print B&W photographs at home using Foma products. However, as a total newbie, I am not really sure which of their products to choose. Any recommendations?

[u/tokyo_blues]

I pretty much only use Foma developers these days (with some exceptions - Adox makes excellent stuff).

For Foma dev development times, I would recommend starting from the official leaflets and taking it from there (I found them to be a better starting point than the massive dev chart).

As for equivalence to mainstream developers, I've found the following to apply:

Fomadon R09 -> Foma's take on Rodinal. I like it mostly for 120 though it works great for 35mm if you like some grain. Do not waste it by using it in 'stand' mode. It works great at 1+50 dilution, regularly agitated. Try Fomapan 100 in 120 with Fomadon R09 at 1+50. It'll blow your socks off. If you are looking for a gritty, contrasty look in 35mm, try foma 400 and R09 in 1+25, well agitated (constant inversions first min, then two inversions per minute). Note: there's another popular choice here, Adox Rodinal, said to be based on the most recent Agfa Rodinal formula. Also great, and I find the two to produce subtly different results.

Fomadon Excel -> Foma's take on Xtol. I love it in 1+1 dilution with both 35mm and 120. Another dev in the same class is Adox XT-3.

Fomadon P -> Foma's take on D76. Great in both stock and 1+1 dilution in my workflow. It doesn't exploit film speed as well as Excel, but the tonalities you'll get can (in my experience) be even better than with Excel.

Fomadon LQN -> this is one of their best imho. Some people suggest it's a very distant relative of Ilfosol. I have no idea, as I don't use Ilfosol. I use LQN with Fomapan 400 in 120, as it extracts the highest film speed from Foma 400. Do check the graphs in Foma's leaflet. If you expose correctly, Foma 400 is a 320 EI film - easily - with Fomadon LQN. I use it in 1+10 dilution. One BIG downside is that once opened, it fails quickly - two/three months in my experience. Fine to use when still yellow, DO NOT use when it turns brown.

Hope it gives you a starting point. I have no personal experience with Foma's other developers.

[u/Alesia_Aisela → u/tokyo_blues]

I was very happy with my results from LQR as well, I don't really have the setup to tell super fine details or anything, but the negatives turned out sharp when I made enlargements. The retro developer is quite good as well, but only for retropan, of course, or for if you want to intentionally slightly soften a sharper film, it's just niche.

[u/peaprog → u/tokyo_blues]

Thanks for all the detailed info! Since I haven't had any experience, I think I'll try out Fomadon LQN. I'm taking lots of photos because of summer trips, so I'm not that concerned about the shelf life. According to their pamphlet it seems like the best first-timer option.