D-76 developing

jermaineB · Jun 15, 2011

Hey, I'm fairly new...mostly reading forums and learning as I go. I've recently been back into film and have never developed my own B&W before, but want to attempt it this weekend. My problem is I mixed a batch of D-76 developer and some fixer about 5 now going on 6 weeks ago before I had to leave away (military). I wanted to develop a couple of days before I left, but I couldn't find my canister opener and had the worst time trying to pry it open with a bottle opener, so I'm wondering if the developer and fixer are still good? It's been kept in those brown bottles I got from Freestyle and in my garage. I've read other places that it should only be mixed right before you want to develop. If that's the case do I have useless developer and should order more? I do have some unopened Rodinal, probably one of the last bottles sold that still says Agfa Rodinal on it, but I'm not sure I want to try my first roll with it.

trexx · Jun 15, 2011

The d-76 should be as good as it ever was after 6 weeks. To be sure take some of the film leader, in the light and place a drop on the leader. for each on the next 5 minutes place another drop somewhere else on the leader. Wait 4 minutes then rinse and fix. If you see all the dots you are in good shape. The dot that is darkest but still let a bright light through would be the time to use So if the first is completely black and the second is letting some light through then 9 in would be a starting point for that film.

jerl · Jun 15, 2011

Yeah, I've had D76 mixed down that I made back in March, and it still works fine. The shelf life is supposedly about 6 months or so, and as long as you keep it sealed in a dark location, you should be fine. Eventually, it will go bad since developer is a reducing agent, so it will eventually exhaust itself reducing atmospheric oxygen if you don't use it on film.

Depending on the fixer you mixed up, it should be fine- actually it should be able to last longer than developer. Again, keep it stored in a sealed container in a dark cool location and you should be fine. You can do a brief check on your fixer again by using a film leader- drop a leader into some fixer and it should clear in a minute or so (Delta and TMAX films may take longer). Longer than 2 minutes to get clear means your fixer is starting to lose capacity. Note that it might be possible for fixer to be bad yet still pass the leader test.

polyglot · Jun 15, 2011

It'll be fine. D76 concentrate keeps for 6 months easily (unless it gets too hot, like 30C) in full bottles so just use it as normal. Once you've done the 1+1 mixing of concentrate and water, it should be used immediately and then discarded. The fixer also will be fine.

Edit: does the D-76 look clear, or maybe very lightly straw coloured? Then it's good. If it's brownish or strong-tea coloured, at least test it very carefully or just bin it. If there are white flakes in there, give it a good shake to evenly distribute them and they will dissolve once you mix it 1+1 with water. They will cause overdevelopment spots if you use the D-76 undiluted, so in that case you'd need to heat it a bit (35C) in a microwave so that they re-dissolve.

Accordion bottles are bad because they're permeable to oxygen. PET softdrink bottles are better; if they're not full (or you can't squeeze the air out) then just put a blast of butane (cigarette lighter gas) in there to exclude some oxygen and provide a protective blanket.

jermaineB · Jun 15, 2011

Thanks for the replies! I will test my test roll that I've used to practice putting in the developing tank.

Thomas Bertilsson · Jun 15, 2011

As an aside, 35mm canisters can easily be opened by grabbing the slit that the film slides in and out of. In the dark just pry the two lips apart and just break it open by bending it. Keep going until you've worked your way roughly half the way around the entire canister. Now you should be able to break either the bottom or top off, and just slide the film out.

Hope that helps. Have fun developing film! And welcome to APUG.

Rick A · Jun 16, 2011

I leave my film in the cassett when loading reels. I snip the leader prior to going dark, load film, then snip flush with the cassett when I get to the end. Then I pop the reel into the can and close the lid. I find this much easier than dealing with loose film.

bobwysiwyg · Jun 16, 2011

Rick A said:
I leave my film in the cassett when loading reels. I snip the leader prior to going dark, load film, then snip flush with the cassett when I get to the end. Then I pop the reel into the can and close the lid. I find this much easier than dealing with loose film.

Same here. The loose film was more a pain for me than anything and frankly felt it posed a problem in terms of emulsion damage, though I could never actually verify this.

jermaineB · Jun 16, 2011

What I don't understand is how some of you talk about the leader of the film...yet once I rewind the film in the camera I can't get that leader film tab back. How do you guys do it? I always think if I don't rewind all the way I might expose some of the film to light which I have done before.

polyglot · Jun 16, 2011

It's best if you don't rewind all the way, just stop when there's the 5cm of leader poking out. Most SLRs with electronic rewind can be set to do this.

If the leader is in the canister, you need a leader-retriever. It's a little metal thing that snags the sprocket holes, or you can make one from some scrap 35mm film, cutting the sprocket holes to make little teeth.

Newt_on_Swings · Jun 16, 2011

Most labs retrieve film from the cassette and snip at the end. Ive always popped the ends off as its a bit faster for me, plus I reload photolab discards (dont want to run any more film through those light traps). Either way is fine, but if you retrieve film, you must make sure that the felt is clean, or you can get scratches =[

I check and clean the felt each time before I reload cassettes. The photolab discards usually leave a bit of leader I can apply tape to stick on my bulk film in the dark and roll back in with a pair of long tweezers quickly.

wogster · Jun 17, 2011

jermaineB said:
What I don't understand is how some of you talk about the leader of the film...yet once I rewind the film in the camera I can't get that leader film tab back. How do you guys do it? I always think if I don't rewind all the way I might expose some of the film to light which I have done before.

Cameras that automatically rewind, can be set to leave it out, camera's that manually rewind, hold the camera up to your ear, you will hear a click as it comes off the spook, and you will then know that there is a bit sticking out. You need to be careful to keep used and unused film separate, so you don't load an already exposed roll, back in the camera.

The best way though, is to get one of these wind your film back in, then fish the leader out with the device. Most mini-labs use these devices to retrieve the leader.

Rick A · Jun 17, 2011

I use a length of old film to retrieve leaders that others wind back into the cassett. I lick the end and insert into the cassett and wait a few seconds, then pull it out. Of course, there is a little more to it than that, but you'll have to figure that out for yourself.

bblhed · Jun 17, 2011

I have heard horror stories of D-76 being left in half filled bottles in a lawn shed where temperatures went from over 100° to well below freezing over a year and a half and the D-76 still worked just fine. I'm not saying you should try that, but it does show what you can get away with.

6 weeks in a garage at around 70 in a sealed bottle should be fine.

jermaineB · Jun 20, 2011

Ok so last night I developed my first roll of film Tmax 400 and I was pretty excited to see the negatives. I let them dry overnight and had a look at them this morning before going to work. I'm happy that I was able to do this using the dev app on my iPhone by adjusting the developing time since the developer was at about 25C. I did notice some splotches on a lot of the frames so I'm not sure what it is. Bad dev, or fixer, too high temperature for dev, or the fact I didn't use a stop bath even though I had some, I didn't have an extra container for it. I'm not sure....I'll take a pic later today and try to post to see if anyone has any idea. I might just shoot a roll off just to test it again with some Arista EDU test rolls I have, before developing another important roll.

polyglot · Jun 20, 2011

You really should use a stop of some sort, even if it's just water. Getting live dev contamination in your fixer will wear it out. In fact, many people recommend just using process-temp water as film stop and it's what I do.

Are the splotches denser areas of silver? Or are they milky? Or brown? Assuming the former ((there was a url link here which no longer exists), though your blotches will look about 2x bigger if using 35mm film), it means you had undissolved chunks of developer floating around, which cause localised extra density - I find it happens with D-76 stock but not when mixed 1+1. Heating the dev a bit before use may cause them to re-dissolve.

jermaineB · Jun 20, 2011

polyglot said:
You really should use a stop of some sort, even if it's just water. Getting live dev contamination in your fixer will wear it out. In fact, many people recommend just using process-temp water as film stop and it's what I do.

Are the splotches denser areas of silver? Or are they milky? Or brown? Assuming the former extra density though your blotches will look about 2x bigger if using 35mm film), it means you had undissolved chunks of developer floating around, which cause localised extra density - I find it happens with D-76 stock but not when mixed 1+1. Heating the dev a bit before use may cause them to re-dissolve.

I did use water between dev and fixer. I believe it was denser areas of silver...because I don't see it on all the frames and the frames they are on are all next to each other. My D-76 is 1+1 and it was at 25C so I'm not sure if it should be warmer than that. It could be my agitation technique. It's my first time so I'll try more with some test rolls. Thanks for the reply!

Newt_on_Swings · Jun 21, 2011

Just use your stop bath, its cheap and it saves fixer and protects from uneven/over development. I use a quick water bath between dev/stop, stop/fix, and fix/hca to avoid to much cross contamination.

Bill Burk · Jun 21, 2011

Hi jermaineB,

Describe your agitation method. Many people like to start with a bath of water to fully wet the film. I had one roll of film (in my life) with blotches (dark spots on the print) that I decided were due to air bells, maybe from an aerated tap in the faucet where I took the water to dilute. I figured I was too timid tapping my Paterson tank for fear of smashing it. Since that day (I don't often use a water bath), immediately after pouring in the developer I invert the tank a certain number of times, then rap the tank sharply on a solid surface a few times. I repeat that pattern at 30 second agitations for the first couple minutes, then later in the process I still invert the same number of times but I lighten up on the rap pattern (by that time I assume air bells are no longer an issue).

jermaineB · Jun 21, 2011

Bill Burk said:
Hi jermaineB,

Describe your agitation method. Many people like to start with a bath of water to fully wet the film. I had one roll of film (in my life) with blotches (dark spots on the print) that I decided were due to air bells, maybe from an aerated tap in the faucet where I took the water to dilute. I figured I was too timid tapping my Paterson tank for fear of smashing it. Since that day (I don't often use a water bath), immediately after pouring in the developer I invert the tank a certain number of times, then rap the tank sharply on a solid surface a few times. I repeat that pattern at 30 second agitations for the first couple minutes, then later in the process I still invert the same number of times but I lighten up on the rap pattern (by that time I assume air bells are no longer an issue).

I inverted the tank for the first 30 seconds then the last 5 seconds of every 30 thereafter. I did tap the tank firmly each time. I did do a water bath before starting the developing. As of now I'm testing a new roll and I'll try agitating using the spindle.

Rick A · Jun 22, 2011

At that temperture(25c), was your developing time less than 5 minutes? Kodak specifies that using times shorter than five minutes could cause uneven developing and blotching. I would think that 25c would have a time considerably shorter than five minutes. You may want to consider tempering your chems to a cooler temperture to bring times up for more even developing. I am a stickler for 20c and no more than 21c no matter what. Shaving time in processing does not result in proper negatives.

D-76 developing

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