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amidol availability europe

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chris77

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hello apug
i contacted suvatlar. and grafox, their supplier, with no success.
anybody knows a source of amidol in europe?
tx a lot.
chris
 
If you search for Amidol from generic chemical suppliers, you might have more luck if you use the scientific name 2,4-diaminophenol dihydrochloride.

Gerbu Biotechnik, a German chemical supplier in Heidelberg has it on stock, but I find the price unexpectedly high:

https://www.gerbu.de/produkt-01820.htm
 
hello again. tx for all the input.
i just received mail from mr. moersch.
due to excessive price its no longer available through him. he has given me 2 sources in the us. which makes it again very expensive for europeans.
meanwhile i have found it at sigma aldrich chem comp. its 98%pure and costs about 60 euro for 25grams. does this price seem ok to you?
 
try it on eBay italy and contact :

"alternativechem" its sold out there, as I
knew - but they have a lot of special stuff
for bw. Its a little bit like photographers
formulary - for europe - even smaler.

I am quite shure they can supplie you
with amidol.

The prices are horrible too.

Perhaps you got a cheeper offer,
from outhers sellers - here it is

15,- € / 25g

with regards
 
Years ago I used Chinese Amidol. I remember having to filter the crap out of it after mixing, though. Prints had an awful yellow stain, but this would go away after a soak in water. I was quite happy with the results.
 
Keten from Poland seems to have it (search page for 'Amidol'), not exactly cheap either, but cheaper than the Sigma Aldrich price you listed (1 € ~ 4.2 zł).
 
Some people who use slow chloride papers prefer Amidol but for other papers there seems to be no such demand. Putting it another way people get excellent tonality without using it. Some years ago when Amidol was popular Kodak stated that the same print tone was possible for a properly formulated MQ developer. It's perfectly possible to get the famed neutral black from many developers with the use of added bromide or benzotriazole. I know I've done it.
 
Last edited:
michael_r said:
Good luck getting Sigma Aldrich to sell anything to an individual. I tried to open an account with them once. Didn't work.
Click to expand...

I tried that, too - impossible.
Then I tried it with my company, and they wanted full & detailed disclosure what I was going to do with the chemicals ("research is not a valid answer").

-> just forget about them, not worth the hassle
 
ok. tx for all the good info.
keten (poland) looks interesting, but its still pricey. 48 euro for 100g.

i am interested to try it with emulsion.
edit: chlorobromide (rollei rbm vc)

and of course to see how good it really is.
chris
 
Last edited:
The husband and wife team Michael Smith and Paula Chamblee use Azo paper exclusively and use Amidol. I know of no others who do. For other than chloride papers (Azo) it's probably pointless to use Amidol.
 
Last edited:
Andrew O'Neill said:
Years ago I used Chinese Amidol. I remember having to filter the crap out of it after mixing, though. Prints had an awful yellow stain, but this would go away after a soak in water. I was quite happy with the results.
Click to expand...

the Chinese Amidol was the "good stuff" your images weren't the typical Chinese Amidol Pink ? I remember when M+P did that whole amidol order. It took years to finalize and
was like some sort of industrial thriller novel ... looking back, that whole fiasco happened at the same time as the problems with antifreeze-toothpaste, and malamine-pet food & baby formula "scandals" ...
i can't imagine buying a "lifetime supply" of any chemical, and later finding out everything but the "test sample" it was swapped out for something defective / problematic...
 
RauschenOderKorn said:
I tried that, too - impossible.
Then I tried it with my company, and they wanted full & detailed disclosure what I was going to do with the chemicals ("research is not a valid answer").

-> just forget about them, not worth the hassle
Click to expand...

Tell them you're a sole proprietor business and i doubt they'll refuse you.
 
jnanian said:
the Chinese Amidol was the "good stuff" your images weren't the typical Chinese Amidol Pink ? I remember when M+P did that whole amidol order. It took years to finalize and
was like some sort of industrial thriller novel ... looking back, that whole fiasco happened at the same time as the problems with antifreeze-toothpaste, and malamine-pet food & baby formula "scandals" ...
i can't imagine buying a "lifetime supply" of any chemical, and later finding out everything but the "test sample" it was swapped out for something defective / problematic...
Click to expand...

It stained yellow, not pink. I was told by the person whom I received it from that it was "garbage Chinese amidol" (his words, not mine), but it works. There were little lumpies in the freshly mixed developer that would impart horrible dark spots all over the print unless filtered several times before use.
 
If some of you are still interested: The Russian retailer mentioned earlier was happy to send abroad and I am now waiting for his Amidol delivery in Germany. Rumours say that the Russian Post is not particularly swift and I am not quite sure how German Customs treat chemical deliveries, but if I eventually get the parcel, I will report on the quality.

Including postage and money transfer fees, I paid about 70€ for 1kg of Amidol.
 
Tor-Einar Jarnbjo said:
If some of you are still interested: The Russian retailer mentioned earlier was happy to send abroad and I am now waiting for his Amidol delivery in Germany. Rumours say that the Russian Post is not particularly swift and I am not quite sure how German Customs treat chemical deliveries, but if I eventually get the parcel, I will report on the quality.

Including postage and money transfer fees, I paid about 70€ for 1kg of Amidol.
Click to expand...

good luck with receiving it !

hopefully the russians didn't get it from the chinese, as andrew mentioned, the chinese amidol is "difficult" to work with.
 
jnanian said:
hopefully the russians didn't get it from the chinese, as andrew mentioned, the chinese amidol is "difficult" to work with.
Click to expand...

I have of course no idea if it's even Amidol he is sending me, but if it happens to work, I will have a supply for the rest of my life and will be able to make a batch (1200ml) of Weston's formula for about 1.40€ (including the other chemicals). That's even cheaper than many regular branded paper developers. If the issue is just to filter the mix to get out any precipitate before use, I have absolutely no problem with that.

And if it doesn't work, I haven't lost that much.

I am running low on ammonium dichromate and was tempted to add some to my order as well, but I didn't want to challenge the German custom's goodwill. After all, ammonium dichromate is restricted by almost any applicable regulation and impossible to obtain for private persons here in Germany.
 
It's probably not worth the trouble. I tried it a few times, back in the 70s. It gave the best prints I ever made (on certain papers) but I don't think that it was obviously superior to some other formulas, such as DuPont 54-D.
 
So, it took 'just' some three weeks for the Russian post to bring the parcel from a Moscow post office to the airport and Russian Customs to approve export. It is now waiting at a German Customs office in Frankfurt for import clearance.
 
Tor-Einar Jarnbjo said:
I am running low on ammonium dichromate and was tempted to add some to my order as well, but I didn't want to challenge the German custom's goodwill. After all, ammonium dichromate is restricted by almost any applicable regulation and impossible to obtain for private persons here in Germany.
Click to expand...

Customs can bill you the disposal costs when trying to import a restricted/banned substance.
 
The Amidol arrived today. There were no issues with the customs clearance.

It might take a week or two before I get to try it.
 
great! let us hear about the quality.
 
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