HC110 turned red

ziyanglai · May 20, 2014

Hey guys, I found 3 bottles of HC110 expired in 2009/2010. They're stored in a dark cabinet at room temperature and they're turned brownish-red.. Do you still think they're usable? And if they are, should I change anything in temperature or how I should dilute it?

Thanks.
Photos attached.

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ntenny · May 20, 2014

Well, if the photo colors are accurate on my monitor, I've used much darker HC-110 syrup with no issues. In the interests of caution you might run a test sheet, but my bet would be that it's absolutely fine.

-NT

Gerald C Koch · May 20, 2014

ntenny said:
Well, if the photo colors are accurate on my monitor, I've used much darker HC-110 syrup with no issues. In the interests of caution you might run a test sheet, but my bet would be that it's absolutely fine.

-NT

+1 Great find! I too see nothing wrong with the developer.

DREW WILEY · May 20, 2014

They must have gotten opened at some point and have symptoms of minor oxidation. Or sometimes this just happens due to a tad of air near the lid. HC-110 concentrate is remarkably stable over time, and I've very carefully tested the effect of this condition myself. If it really gets
gross and deep brown, I'd replace the developer. But what you show in the pics looks perfectly good to me. I wouldn't worry about it.

Richard S. (rich815) · May 20, 2014

It's fine. I just opened a fresh bottle 2-3 weeks ago and it's almost that dark. I've used it as dark as what I'd call a deep ruby red with no is issues. My favorite developer.

Richard S. (rich815) · May 20, 2014

On second thought it's best to take no chances, mail it all to me and I'll dispose of it properly for you.

eclarke · May 20, 2014

It's like food poisoning..If you have to ask the question, throw it away.

ziyanglai · May 20, 2014

Richard Sintchak (rich815) said:
On second thought it's best to take no chances, mail it all to me and I'll dispose of it properly for you.

Haha they're not mine.. I found them in a friends darkroom and he's just letting me "borrow" it. I'll do a test roll and see what happens..

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Mainecoonmaniac · May 20, 2014

Just give it a test

eclarke said:
It's like food poisoning..If you have to ask the question, throw it away.

HC-110 is hard to come by. Just shoot a roll a test it. I've used the syrup darker than in your pictures and it's just fine. I like dilution B. 1 part concentrate to 31 parts water. The stuff keeps forever.

Wayne · May 20, 2014

Its not even red. It'll be good for many years.

Red Tractors · May 20, 2014

It's fine, I have successfully used HC-110 that looked like old motor oil. Negs came out perfectly.

laser · May 20, 2014

The color of HC110 is typically dependent on the manufacturing starting materials. The color of the concentrate is not indicative of the photographic qualities. The best is advice is to simply try it. Good testing technique is always advisable. Shoot a test roll, process half in a known good developer and half in the unknown developer and compare he results. Even if a slight developing time adjustment is needed the developer will be ok.

ziyanglai · May 20, 2014

Mainecoonmaniac said:
HC-110 is hard to come by. Just shoot a roll a test it. I've used the syrup darker than in your pictures and it's just fine. I like dilution B. 1 part concentrate to 31 parts water. The stuff keeps forever.

So 1:31 to make a stock solution? And then dilute it again with water 1:1 later when developing?

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garysamson · May 20, 2014

Mainecoonmaniac said:
HC-110 is hard to come by. Just shoot a roll a test it. I've used the syrup darker than in your pictures and it's just fine. I like dilution B. 1 part concentrate to 31 parts water. The stuff keeps forever.

Hard to come by? We stock it in our school store (NH Institute of Art) in Manchester, NH. Let me know if you need some!

John Bragg · May 20, 2014

Looks good to me. I have used it much darker than that with perfect results. It only really starts to deteriorate when diluted. I usually decant into smaller bottles just to be safe, but I would not hesitate to use the contents of the bottles you have. HC-110 and Rodinal are fairly bullet proof in storage and the dates on the bottles are virtually meaningless and over cautious in the extreme.

Peter Simpson · May 20, 2014

@zyianglai: No, dilute the syrup 1+31 and that's dilution B. Develop your film with that.

Richard S. (rich815) · May 20, 2014

I use 16ml right out of the bottle in 1000ml of water. Then use double Dilution B times. Pulled back 10-15% if the scenes were highly contrasty.

Regular Rod · May 21, 2014

ziyanglai said:
Hey guys, I found 3 bottles of HC110 expired in 2009/2010. They're stored in a dark cabinet at room temperature and they're turned brownish-red.. Do you still think they're usable? And if they are, should I change anything in temperature or how I should dilute it?

Thanks.
Photos attached.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Worry not! It doesn't actually expire, ever!!! It works properly even when it is the colour of brown shoe polish!

RR

kintatsu · May 21, 2014

garysamson said:
Hard to come by? We stock it in our school store (NH Institute of Art) in Manchester, NH. Let me know if you need some!

I use it. The issue for me is that it can no longer be mailed to my address, at least when I try to order it online. Getting it through the mail seems tougher now than before.

tokam · May 21, 2014

My bottle of HC-110 bought in December 2008 has the same expiry, 2010-10, as your bottle. It's a light
honey colour and the bottle is about 30% used. I bought it mainly to use with a lot of expired bulk FP4
and TMY 400 I had from the early '90s. Unfortunately, even HC110 couldn't suppress the high base fog of
badly stored films and I ended up ditching most of them.

When using this developer I always top off the bottle with Protectan spray, (butane would be cheaper),
before screwing the lid on.

Although it's not my main developer I intend to keep this bottle for a long time to come.

Wayne · May 21, 2014

kintatsu said:
I use it. The issue for me is that it can no longer be mailed to my address, at least when I try to order it online. Getting it through the mail seems tougher now than before.

Find yourself a friend who will ship it to you. I can't volunteer for the job right now but someone here should be able to fix you up. I take no responsibility for the consequences of this idea, which is probably a bad idea on some level.

HC110 turned red

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