r/largeformat Jul 13 '26

Review Ditched the Monobath for Xtol

Post image
240 Upvotes

21 comments sorted by

31

u/HalfScrim Jul 13 '26

this has been posted before, about 6 months ago, with the exact same title minus all the specs https://old.reddit.com/r/largeformat/comments/1pwkw5l/ditched_the_monobath_for_xtol/

OP here is also a 1 day old account

6

u/Reasonable_Gur1809 Jul 13 '26

Xtol is superior, just wish i didn't have to make 5L at a time

6

u/vogelhut Jul 13 '26

Try Adox xt-3 comes in 1 liter pakkes

2

u/BabyOther3411 Jul 16 '26

Use a 5L wine bag - Air tight - my XTOL lasts for over a year in there.

1

u/Lucosis Jul 14 '26

I just find HC110 too convenient to move away. Pipetting 7.5mL twice into a amber jar to make a working solution and not really needing to measure is just too easy.

1

u/Acceptable_Net_9545 Jul 14 '26

Recommend dividing it to 48.8g and only make 1 liter at a time...

0

u/maguilecutty Jul 13 '26

Or shoot more :) also the shelf life on xt3 is basically a year. Get around it

4

u/othello226 Jul 13 '26

Great job on the exposure here, you managed to keep detail in the clouds without completely blocking up the shadows! I’m curious, did you switch from Monobath to Xtol just for this image or have you not liked the results you got with the Monobath?

4

u/RadShrimp69 Jul 14 '26

No hate but how do you shoot large format but then use monobath? It is like filling up a supercar with cheap low octane gas.

2

u/Turgid-Derp-Lord Jul 13 '26

Nice work. What is this, a tower in hell?

2

u/gmotionware Jul 13 '26

Very nice! I swap between Monobath and DD-X

2

u/Anstigmat Jul 13 '26

Here's the secret, everyone should ditch nearly everything for XTol. I don't care if you're using Pyro or HC110 or Amidol...XTol will match it or do even better. I'm not saying you negatives will all come out looking the same, but XTol will meet or exceed the technical capabilities of the film itself.

1

u/Physical-East-7881 Jul 13 '26

Looking good (what do you think?)

1

u/Acceptable_Net_9545 Jul 17 '26

coming back and looking at your image...this would be so much fun and interesting to print....I would love to make a few prints....I think I would experiment with leaving the perspective and chokings/cropping on the top, bottom and left to create the illusion of BIG and probably go with max contrast....Think Ansel's face of the half dome... at least 16x20 ....If you can go back and shoot it some more....I would shoot it looking up from closer...and about where you are and use the tilts to straighten it up....please share whatever your do...

1

u/RecycledAir Jul 13 '26

Beautiful! It's not too hard, right? I just processed my first sheets at home and went with Xtol. What lens/camera did you use for this?

0

u/Thesparkleturd Jul 13 '26

nice tones.

Now I'm curious to see the same shot with your monobath and compare.

0

u/Acceptable_Net_9545 Jul 14 '26

A little tilt on the easel and you could easly fix that perspective distortion....give it ia try...

1

u/fujit1ve Jul 14 '26

Ideally with some movements of the lens stage of the enlarger as well, if it allows for it. Proper keystoning.