After few years, my 1L bottle of HC-110 has finally run out. I saw the remains of the brown fluid at the bottom of the bottle. It's been a long journey and I've enjoyed it and I'd love to continue it, but... how much is it now?!

A 50% increase. We need to find an alternative.

I like long lasting, one shot developers now

I used to mix my own D76(d), but I don't have the chemicals. Obvious problem is that a working solution will have its expiry date, and you have to compensate the development time. There's nothing really wrong with that - and D-76 being a classic has a nice look - but I often take long breaks from B&W film now (despite C-41 being digital with extra steps).

One shot also makes me less likely to mix up fixer and developer steps, and I don't have to worry about pouring the solution back either. One important thing - it needs to last long in the concentrated form.

Obvious alternative would be Rodinal. The first problem is I haven't enjoyed using it much with how it looks, second - the price has increased as well. We haven't gotten anywhere. Might have to buy HC-110 again.

Unorthodox homebrewable solution

Of course browsing Taobao has yielded a solution I haven't thought about at all - PC-TEA. It's exactly what it says on the tin:

• P - Phenidone
• C - Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)
• TEA - Triethanolamine.

There's been some articles on how you can make it yourself. 35mmc has one and there's this guy. Both add potassium bromide for anti-fog (restrainer).

It's probably not that expensive to whip it up yourself - I haven't looked, but it seems so. I just bought 500mL of ready solution from Taobao, for 39.9CNY (plus some stop and fixer to get free shipping, totalling 55CNY). Yep, less than a quarter of HC-110's price, while also having working solutions requiring just a bit of the developer, with 1+25 and 1+50 being the most popular. And it has quite long shelf life.

The bottle came unmarked.

However do note that it's not very popular. For homebrewable developers, Caffenol seems to reign supreme (especially among the hippie types), but I never liked the idea of buying instant coffee. The problem arises when you want to determine development times, as they're not as readily available. The seller seemed to suggest that it's similar to Xtol 1+1, online that it's closer to 1+2, and there seemed to be no particular agreement.

The developer came in two 250mL bottles. I don't know if it has the restrainer - the listing doesn't mention it. It's a grey syrup that's even thicker than HC-110, and flows rather slowly into my measuring bottle through a funnel. I do end up adding a bit of water and pouring it into the working solution, so it doesn't linger inside, just something to note. Still, despite its DIY origins, it feels like a proper product, and besides that's no problem, as long as it gets the job done.

First tries, starting small (135)

As I had some HC-110 still, I wanted to shoot some comparisons. I shot a roll of my favorite Ilford surveillance film; one roll in Minolta XD, another in Canon P. Minolta's went into HC-110, for a known and well-tested development time of 11 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius with dilution H (1+63); the Canon P's went into PC-TEA. And of course, first snag - how long do I cook it for? By running some Xtol numbers for similar films and gut feeling, I went with 9 minutes, and it was underdeveloped for sure, so treat the images from this comparison with a grain... of silver.

However, even underdeveloped they scanned quite nicely and I can't spot a massive difference. Frankly, grain feels a tad bit softer - for a film that's terribly grainy. I might try to shoot it at box speed again! (famous last words before massive disappointment)

Below are the samples. On the left - HC-110, on the right - PC-TEA. There might be exposure differences - I used XD's auto metering and then applied the same setting on the Canon P, but auto mode has some leeway and the mechanical shutter might not be fully accurate either.

Really, I can't tell the difference.

Here are few more images I took on the PC-TEA roll, without a comparison:

Scaling up - medium format

I let the HC-110 bottle stand upside-down overnight and gathered enough to develop a roll of 120. I bought two fresh rolls of Fomapan 200 for this, to see how it reacts with T-shaped grain, and shot them with Olympusflex. This time, I didn't shoot the pics side by side, but I repeated two shots after I changed the film on location, of which I can really show just one, and it's not a perfect recreation either.

And this time, with knowledge that a time shorter than HC-110 H isn't good, I just went with the same time (9 minutes) for both and it seems to be a hit this time.

Good to know! PC-TEA 1+50 seems to share development times with HC-110 dil H. 1+25 is probably equivalent to dilution B.

The results were a bit better this time as well. Foma in general with not great QC might've left some artifacts from the backing paper, but otherwise I enjoy the images:

Third time - going BIG (large)

We're doing it live! I'm finally out of HC-110. I've shot some large format over the weekend, Sprocket54 (aka Svema FN-64 @ 50) and Aviphot 200 @ 100 - classics for cheap LF shooting.

Armed with the knowledge I developed the rolls and got nice, thick but detailed negatives. No more issues, but I'm also out of HC110 so no more comparisons. Once I overcome the laziness I'll scan them in high resolution, so treat this part as RESERVED. (Email me if I forget to include them after like 2-3 weeks and you're curious)

Is it a new favorite?

I've shot some comparisons - or you could say I wasted film on the same images. If you follow The Void philosophy, it doesn't really matter as long as the film is developed properly and you can show the world what you wanted to say. If you gave me two images developed with HC-110 and PC-TEA, I wouldn't be able to tell which one is which. Maybe I'd pick the one with the ever so slightly less pronounced grain, as PC-TEA.

And it doesn't have a cult status like Pyro would have (which I'd like to try at some point, but it's not the time yet). However with this price and end result that's very similar to its more famous and expensive Kodak developer? It might be the easiest recommendation, especially if you're just starting out.