Adox FX39 II

[Rumbo181]

Hello everibody.

What’s your experience with this developer?

There are some bottles in a shop and I’m wondering whether is worthy to buy them or not.

Best

Ángel Luis

 

[otto.f]

It’s my first choice for most of my films, from delta to rollei infrared. After having done a lot with HC110, DDX, Xtol, PMK and RPX-D. Shelf life, consistency, beautiful tonal scales. #

 

[Alan9940]

Very fine developer, but, in my experience, it dies fairly quickly once opened.

 

[Rumbo181]

The colour of the liquid is brown. Could it be expired?

 

[Alex Benjamin]

The colour of the liquid is brown. Could it be expired?

Photo on the Adox website shows clear liquid. That said, when I bought mine about a year ago, it was light to darkish brown. Haven't used it yet, so it's unopened.

Maybe @ADOX Fotoimpex could chime in, regarding the liquid's color.

 

[Alan9940]

The colour of the liquid is brown. Could it be expired?

When mine turned brown, it was bad. I'd suggest doing a snip test before developing anything you care about.

 

[Steven Lee]

@Rumbo181 use the search. There was an old thread of @ADOX Fotoimpex re-announcing this developer, with detailed explanations of its characteristics by ADOX themselves and by @Henning Serger (reputable film/chemistry testing specialist).

 

[Alex Benjamin]

@Rumbo181 use the search. There was an old thread of @ADOX Fotoimpex re-announcing this developer, with detailed explanations of its characteristics by ADOX themselves and by @Henning Serger (reputable film/chemistry testing specialist).

FX-39 back to stay!

After Paterson had no interest in continuing the chemistry line we rememebered what we had promised Geoffrey Crawley about 10 years ago: "to keep his baby allive". Here he is again. We hope the 6 months interruption of supply has not led to escapades by its fans. Stock will show by 6PM CET...

www.photrio.com

 

[oxcanary]

I use it for all Delta films. Just this week hit on a new superb combination Fomapan 400 @ 200 in FX39 time from the Massive Developer Chart.

 

[Keith Tapscott.]

It's good that FX39 is back. It would be nice to see Aculux back too, although I think that would be unlikely.

 

[Prest_400]

The colour of the liquid is brown. Could it be expired?

On the other hand, I have found that we have a sealed bottle in our photo club of Adox FX-39 (non II) which I recall looking clear. Have thought to test it.

 

[RJ-]

Hello everibody.

What’s your experience with this developer?

There are some bottles in a shop and I’m wondering whether is worthy to buy them or not.

Best

Ángel Luis

It's a wonderful developer ~ incredibly flexible and versatile. It is a true acutance developer as well as compensating (up to +1stop) designed for medium and high speed film. I use it when Microphen (less acutance) and fine grain as another compensating developer, isn't as sharp. For medium - fast speed ISO film, it's right up there as one of the most legendary formula developers.

Longevity is a problem without decanting into smaller air excluding bottles. Maximum I've obtained is 6 months of working deep tank solution (mixed). Shelf life of bottles vary according to the bottle design:

White plastic bottle, 250ml - 500ml, squat portly can shaped [Black FX39 Paterson on White label with Grey) - 20 years old: virtually all exhausted even on opening the seal. If the shop holds a version like this, it is suitable for display purposes only and is most likely chemically inert by now.

Paterson FX39: Black plastic square columnar bottle, in 1 litre, with Paterson FX39 black on grey print - this was the reissue by Paterson (original) up until the company's demise over 10 years ago: sealed bottles still fully active.

Adox Paterson - this is the modern iteration - I think there have been about 2 versions of this, usually in more expensive smaller quarter or half litres after Adox acquired the rights to make FX39 following Paterson's disappearance. These are the most recent versions of FX39. I've not needed to use this - I'm still using the original no.2 Paterson above which is fully active.

Good luck!

 

[relistan]

I like ADOX and have tried many of their products, which are normally excellent. FX-39 II: I tried it and was not a big fan. The images looked flat and overly grainy. Even Delta 100 managed to look grainy. I personally would pick XTOL or ADOX Xt-3 over it any day.

But, if you haven't tried it, give it a shot. It's not a big outlay, and you might like it.