Edwal fg7

[Jon Buffington]

There is a very old camera/photog store near me with most "merchandise" being anywhere from 10-50 years old. I have picked up some expired developers there (as well as new) including and old bottle of edwal fg7 and hc-110. The hc110 works just fine. Wondering if the Edwal fg7 would be ok as well. Sealed bottle, the store is very dark as well. Thoughts?

Probably should just give it a shot and see what works. Not a lot of info out there currently as this I know is a no longer produced developer. Any insight from former users?

 

[randyB]

I've used FG7 in the past (30yrs ago) and it did a good job. At that time it was a bit pricey compared to the powdered Kodak developers so it was not my main developer. The only way to know for sure is to test a roll or two. Good luck.

 

[Jon Buffington]

Thanks randy for replying. Believe that is what I will do. What part of TN are you in by the way? Over here in Middle TN myself (Manchester).

Anyone else care to comment on user experience with fg7?

 

[bvy]

I'm not sure I'd sacrifice a whole roll of film without first doing a simple clip test. Just place a leader of black and white film in the developer and see if it turns black after a few minutes. You can do this in room light.

You could even do a more advanced test to get a starting point of how long you'll want to develop the film. This involves taking a clip of the film you plan to use, and gradually dropping it in the developer in one minutes increments. The procedure is described here for new developer with old film, but it should work just as well for new film with old developer.
http://foundfilm.livejournal.com/16982.html

 

[Jon Buffington]

I may try that bvy. Thanks!

 

[grahamp]

FG7 was discontinued a few years ago -even if the bottle you have works, you likely will not find any more. There some old threads on FG7 and the issues with replicating it on APUG.

I used it for a few years and it was a decent developer.

 

[cmacd123]

Used it in high school. One OZ made 16oz, so It would fill a tank, easy. Some of the others in the camera club would add one fluid oz of Powder sodium sufite which the claim was it allowed shooting Tri-x at 1600. Back in those days my Camera was an EXA with a top shutter speed of 1/150 of a second so I did not want to experiment in that direction.

Should note that the last bottle I bought, they used a fancy "falcon" measuring bottle which allowed one to measure out the developer using a compartment on the bottle. the developer in that bottle failed rather quickly, presumably for air infiltration.

 

[ColColt]

I liked FG-7, used to use it 1:25 with Tri-X at ASA 250 for 7 minutes.

 

[Jon Buffington]

Thanks for the tip on times!

 

[Jon Buffington]

Well the camera store has another 2 bottles on the shelf so I figure sometime soon I will make my acquaintance with this developer since I will probably pick up the other 2 bottles. Side note, found out today the store is 123 years old. Most everything is new old stock from previous years. Only fresh/new was some portra and hp5+ on the shelf.