I'm a long time Ilford guy! I've used Ilford black and white chemistry as far back as I can remember. I decided to try Black/White Green for a couple reasons. For starters, it's a Canadian product and I'm all for supporting new film photography businesses, especially domestic ones … as long as they make products that measure up to the competition. The second reason is that this new developer is called Black/White & GREEN because it's environmentally friendly. In fact the main ingredient used is Vitamin C. Another component is an emulsifier found in hand cream. When you are finished processing your film, you could feel safe tossing it down the drain or even into your garden! It’s also safe for those with septic systems. That’s pretty unique, but how does it measure up to my everyday chemicals, namely Ilford Ilfosol 3 or my good old Swiss Army Knife of developers … Rodinal? 

I processed a roll of Ilford HP5 and found the results are comparable to Ilfosol 3. It had very similar grain and contrast levels. I don’t use Rodinal as often, as it tends to be a little grainier. I do use it when working with very old films or large format where grain is less significant so Ilfosol 3 is my main developer and BW&G is very comparable in image quality. 

There are other factors to consider: 

This has never been a big issue for me because I tend to use my chemicals long before they expire. FlicFilm didn't provide any specifics but in conversation with Dave Marshall, president of FlicFilm, he said “It should have a very long shelf life, much like Rodinal”. He didn’t elaborate beyond that but the shelf life of Rodinal is measured in decades. In fact a few years ago I tried remnants of a bottle of 60 year old Rodinal and it worked as good as fresh. I don't know if BW&G will last that long but it sounds similar in that it can be stored on a shelf and last a long time. This is the kind of thing that most home film processing folks want to hear. Most of us just won't get out money worth out of a developer whose life is measured in weeks as opposed to months or years. 

At $22 for a 250ml a bottle, it’s not the cheapest developer. By comparison, Ilfosol 3 is $16 a bottle for a 500ml bottle. However we can’t stop there because BW&G is used at a tiny 1:49 dilution where I use Ilfosol 3 at 1:14. Based on processing single rolls of 35mm, the BW&G will process 40+ rolls, which works out to 55 cents per roll. The larger bottle of Ilfosol 3 will only process 23 rolls which results in a per roll cost of 70 cents. That’s not a big difference but it add’s up over time. There are other dilution ratios that can be used with Ilfosol 3 but for the purpose of this post I’m using 1:14 as it’ one of the most common, and also what I personally use.

Ilfosol 3 comes in liquid form and is very easily mixed with water to make your working strength developer. I was surprised the first time I tried to mix BW&G. I was expecting a similar liquid developer concentrate, but instead I discovered that it has a thick consistency similar to syrup or honey. Pouring the concentrate developer into a graduate cylinder small enough to measure out 6ml proved to be a challenge. Perhaps I should more accurately state that getting the concentrate out of the graduate and into the beaker of water was a bigger challenge. I was eventually able to get the thick developer fully out of the graduate by rocking working strength back into the graduate and then back 
into the working strength beaker. By pouring the working strength developer back and forth from the beaker to graduate and then graduate to beaker, several times, I was eventually able to get all the syrup out. Once the concentrate was in the beaker it tended to sit in a lump on the bottom of the water filled beaker. Fortunately in my darkroom I have a magnetic stirrer that quickly resolved that situation and thoroughly mixed the concentrate. If you don't have such a device, you will be stirring by hand to get the concentrate properly mixed. My recommendation would be to pour your water and concentrate into a bottle with a lid, rather than an open top beaker. That way you could put on the lid and like mixing a martini, a few quick shakes would properly mix your chemical.

Will I be switching to BW&G. No, but not because there is anything wrong with it. It's a nice developer and it works very well! I love that it lasts like Rodinal and is very inexpensive yet gives the finer grain of Ilfosol 3. However, I’ve been using Ilfosol 3 for a long time and it’s readily available at my local camera shop a few minutes from home, so it will remain my main developer of choice. 

Would I recommend BW&G for someone starting out? Absolutely! It's very inexpensive, it's wonderfully environmentally friendly and it doesn't need to be stored in air tight containers. You just put the cap back on the bottle and stick it on your shelf. You don’t have to worry about it expiring, it will last a long time. The syrup aspect is a minor annoyance but if you pour the concentrate into a capped bottle with water, and then shake, this becomes less of an issue. 

It's a great developer and one I will absolutely be recommending to my students!

I’ve found a way around the measuring issue mentioned above. Use a digital scale that is able to measure in millilitres. You place the large 500ml beaker on the scale and zero the scale. Add your concentrate, 6ml for one roll in my example, then top up the beaker with water to the desired volume .. all using the scale, it works perfectly and totally addresses the syrup problem I mentioned in the article.