“Over the last 20 years I have had an on/off relationship with staining developers. I tried Gordon Hutching’s PMK, Sandy King’s Pyrocat HD, commercially available pyro developers, Barry Thornton’s version and now 510 Pyro.

I think that the latter has given me the best results out of all of them, and I will continue to use it alongside Rodinal and ID11, both of which I love for certain ways of working.

510 Pyro gives superb results, experienced workers will find that it provides fine grain, sharpness, and a long tonal scale in the highlights, though it necessitates a much more methodical approach.”

“I have been using 510 Pyro for a few months now. My observations are as follows keeping in mind the other developer I use is also a pyro developer, Pyrocat HD, so my comparison is based on that.

510 Pyro produces very fine grain, however I feel that Pyrocat HD produces finer grain, now this might be down to my own workflow and this might need to be fine tuned as I get used to working with 510 Pyro.

The acutance is very good with both developers, one area I have seen a big difference is 510 Pyro ability to retain a very long tonal range especially in the shadows, on that I think it’s better than Pyrocat HD.

I scan my negatives on high end film scanners and so far the scans from 510 Pyro negatives seem to need less work to gain contrast and tonal separation, this for me is a big advantage as it speeds up my workflow.”

“510 Pyro is one of “The Three Pyro Giants” along with PMK and Pyrocat HD.”

“Though I’ve only developed 7 films so far with 510 Pyro, this could easily become my favourite developer. I feel an article coming on…”

“The only problem with 510 Pyro is after you’ve used it regularly for a while and then go back to traditional chemistry, the results from it are different. It’s almost like 510 Pyro produces 4K pictures to the 720p of traditional stuff.”

“I was previously an Ilfosol 3 user, with 510 Pyro and the grain focuser, Ilford HP5+ grain looks like FP4+ and the FP4+ grain… I’ve never seen anything like it! I’m now a fully fledged pyro convert!”

“510 Pyro has been a game changer. It’s genuinely amazing. Just goes from strength to strength. Need to buy 5 gallons from you now, can’t see myself using anything else!”

Just thought I’d drop you a line about my testing with 510 Pyro.

I’m very impressed…. I’ve tested so far with Fomapan 100, T-Max 400, P3200, FP4 and even some very unconventional films such as Washi F and Blue Sensitive Copy Film.

I’ve found it particularly good for the Washi films and the obscure types, where a semi stand 25 min development controls the extreme contrast in these films and prevents the highlight detail in getting completely blown out as when developed in ID-11 or HC-110.

I’ve mainly been using it with semi-stand hand development in a Patterson tank, but have also used it in the Jobo.

Negatives scan easily, very sharp and with a rich tonality with great separation.

I’ll definitely be using it more and adding it to our selection of developers at SilverPan!

“Oh my god, I like this developer! Wow! The grain is so fine!”

“Was surprised with Fomapan 200 in 510 Pyro, it raises the quality of that film. Cheap film is not supposed to look that good!”

“I’m a 510 Pyro convert.”

https://parallaxphotographic.coop/kodak-t-max-100-in-510-pyro-film-review/

The acutance is very high especially with the HP5+. It gives a very vintage look. Contrast high with compression of mid tones. Definitely a ‘look’ .

The etching like effect could have real appeal for [certain artistic applications]. I think you would need to shoot with this developer in mind as it'll clearly not suit some subjects or outcomes. Will use some more…