Acufine -- at least 30 years old -- Thanks John

[chiller]

Recently I was sifting the archives and came across a post from John S of Melbourne another APUG member from here in Australia. Hohn had in his possession 5 1 quart cans of Acufine that he had aquired about 30 years ago and was willing to pass on to anyone for postage.

I contacted him and a couple of days later my goody bag arrived with 5 small cans of developer.

The cans looked old -- even had mention of film I remember.

I removed the lid expecting caked or decaying chemicals but everything looked fine. After converting from the US liquid measure of one quart to about .946 litres I mixed my first batch odf Acufine for, well nearly 30 years.

Memory is not a good indicator of fact but I did recall Acufine as a well balanced fine grained general purpose developer.

I loaded a roll of APX and quickly shot it at 160 iso and processed at the times given on the MDC -- next to perfect negs. This developer was perfect after 30 years in the can.

My film of choice now is Acros but the experimenter in me just couldn't use the developer as a straight stock solution so I mixed it as a one shot at 1[Acufine stock]+ 2[Water] and processed the Acros for 7 minutes 30 seconds 20C and the negs are wonderful.

I couldn't find any times on the web for acros and Acufine at 1:2 so what would you do? Exactly what I did -- guess

Although the Acufine is a speed increasing developer I choose 100 iso as I have found the best results with Acros at or below 50iso.

The smooth tonality and grain are wonderful.

I will be travelling to America in september for nearly a month and catching up with two APUG members from California and i've already had some Acufine sent ahead for the Acros that will be used.

I don't have a densitometer but intend to do some quick testing to establish my personal EI when i get to America.

I have settled on Rodinal and Acufine fo use with the acros as they are wonderful for extracting two different characteristics from the film.

The scan I've posted is not brilliant but it will give you some indication if you want to try this combination.

Thanks very much John. I'm very pleasantly suprised and can fully recommend Acros and Acufine as a very useful combo.

 

[Gerald Koch]

Back when developers were distributed in cans like tomato soup they were sealed under nitrogen. Unless the cans are exposed to high heat the developer within is vitually immortal. I have successfully used DK-50 that was made before 1950! Unfortunately, photo chemicals are now distributed in bags which are a very poor substitute for the cans.

 

[roy]

It looks as though Rodinal has a rival for longevity !

 

[Whiteymorange]

Wow! Great to read this thread. I was just given two large cardboard boxes filled with cans of Acufine, D76 and other assorted goodies. In another box were boxed film rolls - Panatomic X, Plus X, Eastman Tri X, Eastman 4X and lots of old (1953) Kodachrome. I have been trying the film. The Pan X is in great shape, the Plus X is a bit fogged and the rest is still up for testing. Glad to hear that the chemicals might be good as well. I'm going to s--- can the Kodachrome and Ektachrome from the 50's but the rest will be used... eventually.

 

[Paul Howell]

When I left to live in Europe in the early 80's I stored a few cases of Microdol X, D 76, DK50 and Polydol. They were in storage for 10 or 12 years and when I returned to Arizona I put them away in a storage room in my house and did not open any of them until 2000. A couple of weeks ago I bought from E bay cans of acufine, DK50 DK50R and PolydolR, so far as good as new. As mentioned above chemistry stored in cans seems to last forever.

 

[john_s]

......and lots of old (1953) Kodachrome....... I'm going to s--- can the Kodachrome and Ektachrome from the 50's but the rest will be used... eventually.

I can tell you that 1952 Kodachrome movie film was fine in the early 1970s. (Stored in house and garage) It was only 10ASA in those days, which is not as bad as it sounds for movies since the shutter speed isn't vary fast. Kodak sent it from here in Australia to Hawaii for processing (no extra charge, since processing had been paid in 1952) and results were good.

Maybe 50 years, though, is a bit much to expect.