Color of Xtol when Mixing

Chazzy · Aug 21, 2007

I mixed up some Xtol for the first time a couple of days ago, and I was a little concerned that the solution was amber to brown after dissolving the part 1 packet. The color changed to clear after dissolving the second packet. Is the initial amber or brownish color anything to worry about?

MikeSeb · Aug 21, 2007

nope. a slight grayish brown is what I usually see.

waynecrider · Aug 21, 2007

Got amber more or less when I mixed mine and no problems. Watch for a yellowing indicating it's going bad.

Peter De Smidt · Aug 21, 2007

The thing, though, is Xtol doesn't necessarily yellow when it's exhausted. Fresh mixed is a light straw color. Look for dark brown specks or clumping in the small packet. If there is, definitely test before committing valuable film.

GeorgesGiralt · Aug 22, 2007

Hi !
Dump a film leader in the working strengh solution and during the time it soup into, load your tank, prepare other chemicals, etc...
If during that time the film leader fails to turn black, dump your gone south Xtol and mix a fresh bath....

Snapshot · Aug 22, 2007

It appears to be the correct coloration, although I recall it being an amber colour when I first mixed it up.

ijsbeer · Aug 22, 2007

I also have the amber color when mixing package A. it dissapears indeed when I throw Package B in the bucket.
I always test with a small piece of film before doing some development. Better safe than sorry.
X-tol is IMHO easy to mix lasts long enough to use it all. And best of all no mixing needed before every session.

Cheers

GeorgesGiralt · Aug 22, 2007

Some time ago I posted information for keeping Xtol way past the Kodak advertised date.
A Swiss photographer using a slightly modified method has Xtol which had survived more than 4 or 5 years (Dead Link Removed) so the method is useful with the 5 liter package Kodak produce now.
Here is the post :
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)
Hope this helps.

Tim Gray · Aug 22, 2007

Wow, I don't shoot that much film, but 5 liters still only lasts... 5-6 months? Who needs to keep it around 4-5 years?

highpeak · Aug 22, 2007

Chazzy, it's normal, nothing to worry about. Another thing is always do a test before you use it like "Beer" said

Alex W.

GeorgesGiralt · Aug 22, 2007

Tim,
Should all we do in life be useful ? ;-)
And bear in mind that one may have more than one favorite dev.

edebill · Aug 23, 2007

Tim Gray said:
Wow, I don't shoot that much film, but 5 liters still only lasts... 5-6 months? Who needs to keep it around 4-5 years?

Maybe they use extra small tanks. I used to use a combi-plan T tank and it needed 1L of developer, so even at 1:1 I burned through a 5L package of XTOL mighty quickly.

Then again, some friends came over last weekend and one of them brought his MF film that needed developing. The first roll came out, he looked at the images and made a comment about the girl in them being curious about the results - they were from February.

Color of Xtol when Mixing

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