Dektol question

[pdccamerqs]

Hi all,

Yesterday, I cut open a bag of Kodak Dektol powder, bought fresh from B&H in 2024 with a 2027 expiration date. The powder was a mix of brown and white, and produced a dark brown, strong-tea colored solution when mixed with 3L of 100 degree F water. I threw it all away fearing the powder had oxidized in the bag somehow. I have read past posts on here and on the B&H site describing this issue and was just wondering if anyone has purchased any in the last 3 months or so that is no longer brown?

Thanks,

Paul

 

[F4U]

No, it shouldn't be tea colored, although what you mixed up might have worked well enough for temporary use. If everything is right, a new freshly mixed stock solution won't be totally clear as water. I've always observed a faint tan tinge, but thats all. There should be no dark powder content. But since Eastman Kodak Co went bankrupt and sold off their formulas and trademark, nothing was ever quite the same. Eastman Kodak was one company with impeccable standards. Reading your problem is disappointing, but not wholly unexpected.

 

[MattKing]

No, it shouldn't be tea colored, although what you mixed up might have worked well enough for temporary use. If everything is right, a new freshly mixed stock solution won't be totally clear as water. I've always observed a faint tan tinge, but thats all. There should be no dark powder content. But since Eastman Kodak Co went bankrupt and sold off their formulas and trademark, nothing was ever quite the same. Eastman Kodak was one company with impeccable standards. Reading your problem is disappointing, but not wholly unexpected.

Eastman Kodak still owns their trademarks - at least all the ones that we tend to care about here. They were successful in emerging from bankruptcy.
Eastman Kodak hadn't been actually manufacturing the still film photo-chemicals themselves for many years before the bankruptcy - they had been contracting with others for years.
Some of those European based contract manufacturers subsequently went bankrupt themselves, and they didn't survive bankruptcy.
The relatively recent licensing agreement with Photo Systems - the current US based manufacturers of Kodak branded still film photo-chemicals - came about after rights to use the Kodak name for still film photo-chemicals reverted to Eastman Kodak, after the previous holder of those rights went into bankruptcy during the worst of the Covid pandemic.
There were apparently extensive negotiations respecting Photo Systems' acquisition of those rights - which were likely to include quality control promises.
Photo Systems has a long history of history in the photo chemical industry - one of their continuing brand names is Unicolor, who have been around for decades.

Discoloration can be due to a damaged package.

Reach out to your retailer. Failing that, and assuming that the packaging indicates it originated from the USA, reach out to Photo Systems, whose website for the Kodak branded stuff is here: https://kodak.photosys.com/
If you reach out to Photo Systems, you will most likely hear back from their contracted worldwide distributor CineStill, who also supply customer service.

 

[mshchem]

Times change.

Just FYI I have a ridiculous number of steel cans of Kodak made chemistry from the 70's back to the 50's. It is perfect free flowing powder. Good as it was the day it was made. Dektol, Microdol-X, Selectol, D-76. Beautiful stuff 1 quart to 5 gallon.

Not sure that you could buy materials like what Kodak could buy and/or manufacture in the 20th century.

PSI is a darn good company, i'm sure going forward the Kodak branded items will be fine.

 

[F4U]

Perhaps one day, the Kodak developers will once again be sold in cans. I remember when they went from cans to bags in he 70's, then made of plastic-lined paper. Then to much better metalized plastic bags, maybe mid 80's? I bet I've ended up with hundreds of those "post can" bags of chemicals acquiring and trading photographic gear. None of those chemicals any good any more. But a 60 year old can of developer? Good as the day it was made, right now in 2025. I don't believe I'd eat any WWII K-rations, if I came upon any. But a can of Kodak developer will probably be just as good even after the zombie apocalypse. Thanks for clearing up the Kodak history, Matt. As for the OPs question, I can offer no help. Even if there had been an air leak into the bag, it still should have been good for a couple years, anyway

 

[retina_restoration]

Back when Sino Promise was manufacturing Kodak chemistry, I got bad packages of Dektol, D-76 and Xtol, all of which had to be thrown out. That’s when I swore off (at?) all Kodak chemistry and started making everything myself.

But 2 months ago I took a chance on the Photo Systems Inc. version of Xtol, and it’s been just fine. I will occasionally buy Xtol going forward., but only if it’s made by Photo Systems Inc. I would recommend NOT using any Kodak chemistry made by Sino Promise - it was a gamble whether or not you got usable chemistry.

 

[pdccamerqs]

Thanks all! The combined and accumulated knowledge of the people on this site is amazing! Since getting back into film photography about three years ago, I have been using D-76 for films with no problems and Ilford pre-mixed MG developer, and I have been happy with both, but I am curious about going back to my 1970's darkroom roots and try some Dektol again. I seem to remember my prints being a bit "snappier" in tone and contrast with Dektol back then. I realize there could be a million reasons for this impression, including aging eyesight, but I thought I would give it a try - and then the brown powder! I will order another bag and see how it goes. At least Dektol is less expensive! Thanks! Paul

 

[darkroommike]

Eastman Kodak still owns their trademarks - at least all the ones that we tend to care about here. They were successful in emerging from bankruptcy.
Eastman Kodak hadn't been actually manufacturing the still film photo-chemicals themselves for many years before the bankruptcy - they had been contracting with others for years.
Some of those European based contract manufacturers subsequently went bankrupt themselves, and they didn't survive bankruptcy.
The relatively recent licensing agreement with Photo Systems - the current US based manufacturers of Kodak branded still film photo-chemicals - came about after rights to use the Kodak name for still film photo-chemicals reverted to Eastman Kodak, after the previous holder of those rights went into bankruptcy during the worst of the Covid pandemic.
There were apparently extensive negotiations respecting Photo Systems' acquisition of those rights - which were likely to include quality control promises.
Photo Systems has a long history of history in the photo chemical industry - one of their continuing brand names is Unicolor, who have been around for decades.

Discoloration can be due to a damaged package.

Reach out to your retailer. Failing that, and assuming that the packaging indicates it originated from the USA, reach out to Photo Systems, whose website for the Kodak branded stuff is here: https://kodak.photosys.com/
If you reach out to Photo Systems, you will most likely hear back from their contracted worldwide distributor CineStill, who also supply customer service.

PSI is definitely "the good stuff", the company made color chemicals for Unicolor (and I suspect others) all the way back to the E-4 days and made/distributed some of the Unicolor hardware, too.

 

[MattKing]

As I understand it, PSI is Unicolor!

 

[MattKing]

Perhaps one day, the Kodak developers will once again be sold in cans. I remember when they went from cans to bags in he 70's, then made of plastic-lined paper. Then to much better metalized plastic bags, maybe mid 80's? I bet I've ended up with hundreds of those "post can" bags of chemicals acquiring and trading photographic gear. None of those chemicals any good any more. But a 60 year old can of developer? Good as the day it was made, right now in 2025. I don't believe I'd eat any WWII K-rations, if I came upon any. But a can of Kodak developer will probably be just as good even after the zombie apocalypse. Thanks for clearing up the Kodak history, Matt. As for the OPs question, I can offer no help. Even if there had been an air leak into the bag, it still should have been good for a couple years, anyway

FWIW, I expect the combination of the costs of using cans, shipping cans, and reserving shelf space on the few remaining retailer shelves for cans would so dwarf the costs of the developer itself that if Kodak developers came in cans, you would only be able to buy them in a Leica store!

 

[darkroommike]

Times change.

Just FYI I have a ridiculous number of steel cans of Kodak made chemistry from the 70's back to the 50's. It is perfect free flowing powder. Good as it was the day it was made. Dektol, Microdol-X, Selectol, D-76. Beautiful stuff 1 quart to 5 gallon.

Not sure that you could buy materials like what Kodak could buy and/or manufacture in the 20th century.

PSI is a darn good company, i'm sure going forward the Kodak branded items will be fine.

Same here! I also have a stash of canned goods including Kodak, Acufine, and Diafine. I also have a much smaller stash of Acu-1, the one-shot version of Acufine, which was my go to for many years. I'm afraid that when my Acu-1 is gone, it's gone for good, haven't seen any on Ebay for a couple of years and the company seems to have to interest in producing another run.

I have had a couple of Ansco can's that were really rusty and must have lost their seal but any intact cans should be fine for a long, long time. Cans of acid fixer might be more suspect than cans of developer.

 

[Bill Burk]

FWIW new bags have batch number imprinting. They solved the issue.

The brown Dektol that I had came without the batch imprint.

 

[mshchem]

Same here! I also have a stash of canned goods including Kodak, Acufine, and Diafine. I also have a much smaller stash of Acu-1, the one-shot version of Acufine, which was my go to for many years. I'm afraid that when my Acu-1 is gone, it's gone for good, haven't seen any on Ebay for a couple of years and the company seems to have to interest in producing another run.

I have had a couple of Ansco can's that were really rusty and must have lost their seal but any intact cans should be fine for a long, long time. Cans of acid fixer might be more suspect than cans of developer.

No Kodak cans with a pull tab aluminum top! A brief marketing mistake! I should start a free developing service to get rid of this stuff