Expired HC110 - Please Check My Math

[mojojones]

I have some T-Max 400 I want to try with HC110 Dil. H but when I went for the bottle I found all I had was one that had expired in 2008 and only had about an inch of fluid in it. Thinking I'd give it a try anyway I ran a couple rolls of Arista II to check if it was still good. They came out with very thin shadows, but the highlights looked fine. By my reasoning, this would indicate that the developer was still good but that there was just a significant loss of film speed with this combo. I'm sure I shot it at 400 which was fine in Rodinal.

Does this sound right? (Before I go ahead with the T-Max.)

Thanks,

J.

 

[Ian Grant]

It keeps extremely well so should be fine. ISO 9001 means shorter dates are put in most products these days so it should be fine.

Ian

 

[Eric Rose]

There is no such thing as "expired" HC110.

 

[Ian Grant]

There is no such thing as "expired" HC110.

Or Tmax Developer.

Ian

 

[mojojones]

That's what I thought. I was just thrown when the Arista II came out so thin. Thanks for helping with my confusion.

J.

 

[J D Clark]

I use HC110 (B) for developing my TMAX-400 sheet film, and find I can rate the TMAX at ISO 320. That said, all the film speed testing I've done indicates that I can generally use the rated film speed whatever film I use -- whether it's the water, meter, or agitation scheme I don't know.

John Clark
www.johndclark.com

 

[brucemuir]

There is no such thing as "expired" HC110.

It can go weak if it is exposed to too much light.

But on the other hand I have some from around 2005-6 that is quite dark and still works but I haven't done any densitometry readings. It seems to have lost a bit of ommmph.

 

[2F/2F]

FWIW, I've recently used HC-110 from the '70s, and it worked with my normal times for Delta 3200 at EI 4000. The bottle of concentrate was full and unused, but had no seal other than that of the plastic cap to the plastic bottle.

I have also had dilution B working solution in a half full glass bottle for eight months with no loss in performance.

I would say you are fine, especially since it is the concentrate you have.

 

[Eric Rose]

It can go weak if it is exposed to too much light.

But on the other hand I have some from around 2005-6 that is quite dark and still works but I haven't done any densitometry readings. It seems to have lost a bit of ommmph.

That's why it's called a darkroom, cuz it's dark. All my chemicals are kept away from direct sunlight or any other light for that matter. To do otherwise is poor practice imho.