Ornano Gradual ST-20 Film Developer was revived from the dead in 2021 by BelliniFoto together with Nik & Trick Photo Services.
Once a very popular product, especially in the USA but not seen until then, for over 18 years Gradual ST20 is now starting to regain that momentum as being potentially one of the top three b&w developers currently available.
It’s complex high energy phenidone based formula has excellent utilisation of film speed, tolerating underexposure of one stop or more ie it’s good for pushing films even when using prolonged development times.
That formula also makes it especially suitable for high-speed films or film shot where poor ambient or artificial lighting is used but also great for films intended for widespread subject matters such as fashion, fine art, reportage, architecture, micro and macro photography.
A developer that makes for very good physical prints and strong enlargements in the darkroom, as well as lovely detailed scans.
Without fail, results invariably prove to be absolutely outstanding and as people share those on social media the realisation that this new Gradual ST-20 builds on the reputation of it’s former self is happening.
For those that expect expect the finest results from their black and white films are coming back for more as they concur with our own findings and agree that this could be the best out there. We rate it over and above the might DDX.
We have found it to be specially good with Tmax 100 & 400, Shanghai GP3, Rollei Infra-Red and folk are loving it when used with Foma and Ilford films too.
If you’re not sure yet then we also decant the odd bottle down into sample sized bottles for you to try…seriously, give it a go, you stand to be amazed! 😉
George Day (verified owner) –
I used this developer for the first time with ORWO UN54 shot at 100 ISO and the results were very nice indeed at the recommended dilution of 1:9 for 5 min @20C. This film was made for motion picture use and as such has fine grain and good latitude and although D96 is the developer designed for this type of film I think Gradual ST 20 acts in a very similar way and with its fine grain development and is therefore going to be a valuable addition in choice of development of a range of films, especially if intending to push process .
Mark Thompson (verified owner) –
I used this developer for the first time today. Very impressed with the results; fantastic tonality, sharpness and fine grain. I developed a 35mm roll of Kentmere 400 for the Frugal Film Project (group on Facebook) with an old Voigtlander Vito CL. The film had been exposed at box speed and developed at 1+9 for 9 minutes at 20 degrees C. I highly recommend this developer, the results are stunning. Look forward to trying it with larger format film in a better camera. I will post some of my first scans this week on my Instagram feed @fyldephoto
Richard –
Thank you for that Mark,
Word is spreading about this developer and showing that our words are honest as usual…this truly is an exceptional developer!
I’m going to share them on our social media so that should reflect in your IG following hopefully
Jonathan Baxter (verified owner) –
Used this developer on a few occasions and honestly the results speak for themselves. I find it can recover a slight under exposed negative when at the printing stage, but it really shines when my negatives are exposed +1 – + 2 stops over. Just my initial findings.