Kodak D-76 used stock shelf life

daliborwalk · Jul 21, 2025

Hello, I have developed 2 film rolls in 1 liter of D-76 stock solution. May I used it again 2-3 days later to develop next film roll? D-76 solution still looks good after 2 days from the first developed 2 rolls - clear, no color (yellow) tint visible only on the walls of the storage bottle there are gray dots - probably reacted silver. Stored in a fully filled tightly closed bottle in the dark place at a room temperature (20°C).
My experience with x-tol stock solution - I am using it 3 days (for 1 batch of development each day) successfuly.

Bill Burk · Jul 21, 2025

I’m sure it’s fine and you probably don’t even have to adjust development time yet because you haven’t used much of its capacity.

I usually get 8 rolls from a Liter of stock D-76 but I use it one shot 1:1.

After a couple more rolls you might add some development time, maybe fifteen percent on the fifth and sixth rolls to maintain contrast.

daliborwalk · Jul 21, 2025

Bill Burk said:
I’m sure it’s fine and you probably don’t even have to adjust development time yet because you haven’t used much of its capacity.

I usually get 8 rolls from a Liter of stock D-76 but I use it one shot 1:1.

After a couple more rolls you might add some development time, maybe fifteen percent on the fifth and sixth rolls to maintain contrast.

Thank you Bill!

koraks · Jul 21, 2025

daliborwalk said:
only on the walls of the storage bottle there are gray dots - probably reacted silver

The silver will stay in the film. Gray dots are probably oxidized developer.

daliborwalk said:
Stored in a fully filled tightly closed bottle in the dark place at a room temperature (20°C).

It should keep fine for a long time this way.

daliborwalk · Jul 21, 2025

koraks said:
The silver will stay in the film. Gray dots are probably oxidized developer.

It should keep fine for a long time this way.

Gray dots - OK, thanks.

It should keep fine for a long time this way - even though it has already been used to develop 2 films?

Agulliver · Jul 21, 2025

It's probably good for at least 3 months stored that way.

daliborwalk · Jul 21, 2025

Agulliver said:
It's probably good for at least 3 months stored that way.

Thank you!

bernard_L · Jul 21, 2025

daliborwalk said:
on the walls of the storage bottle there are gray dots - probably reacted silver

Alarm bell ! Not concern about the activity of the developer, but about cleanliness. You don't want any of these particles to freely float and stick to the surface of your film. If I were you I would filter the developer into a clean bottle.

Tip: to clean the inside of a glass bottle, half-fill it with water and add a spoonful of sand. Shake vigorously until the walls are clean. No nasty chemicals involved.

Agulliver · Jul 21, 2025

The other thing you can do is filter the solution to remove the grey particles suspended in it.

I was once given a storage bottle which had previously been used in a person's darkroom for a couple of decades....the entire inner surface was covered in grey particles!

koraks · Jul 21, 2025

daliborwalk said:
It should keep fine for a long time this way - even though it has already been used to develop 2 films?

Yes, that doesn't really matter. Having developed a couple of rolls of film has oxidized a small percentage of the developing agents - but that's really quite minimal. The main threat to a developer is oxidization by air. As long as you keep it in a hermetically sealed container (e.g. a glass bottle that's entirely full with a properly fitting screw cap), essentially only the air dissolved already in the water poses a risk. In a formulation like D76, the sulfite will be sufficient to get rid of that; as long as there's no supply of fresh air/oxygen to the developer, the oxidization process basically halts very soon after you've closed the bottle.

Agulliver said:
The other thing you can do is filter the solution to remove the grey particles suspended in it.

That will help cosmetically, but I don't think it does much or anything for the shelf life of the developer as such. I can see how the particulate matter may worry some; if so, filtration is a perfectly fine solution.

Saganich · Jul 21, 2025

I use marbles to reduce the head space in bottles and that makes a huge difference. Kudos for the sand idea btw, I'll have to try that one. Coffee filter works...here is an old thread about coffee filters.

Dirty replenished developer...where's it coming from?

I keep 2L batches of D23 in clear plastic cranberry juice bottles. After a while, and it doesn't seem to correlate with how much film I'm running, it gets all dirty. The inside of the plastic bottle will be coated with a brownish substance and the developer will be cloudy with brown fog. It...

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darkroommike · Jul 22, 2025

Kodak says two months for a partially used bottle (less than completely full). You are, after all, introducing oxygen into your solution each time you use it and eventually your preservative will be used up. Just one of many reasons I prefer to use developers "one shot". "One and done" means you use fresh developer for each roll you process.

Alan Johnson · Jul 22, 2025

koraks said:
The silver will stay in the film. Gray dots are probably oxidized developer.

The solubility of silver bromide in sodium sulfite solution increases considerably with increase in sodium sulfite concentration.(Mees & James 3rd edition p365). With such sulfite solutions silver slowly precipitates out and forms a black deposit of finely divided silver.
Here I have 2 PET bottles, one containing Thornton's part A and the other Microphen. Both have deposits of black silver on the bottom after they have been used in film development.
With such solutions it is eventually needed to decant them or to filter them to avoid getting silver particles deposited on the film if a black deposit can be seen after repeated use.

koraks · Jul 22, 2025

Thanks, I didn't realize that. So basically you're saying the developer is fixing out the film and to an extent acting as a monobath.

Alan Johnson · Jul 22, 2025

It's well known that sulfite uncovers latent image specks and allows them to be developed of course.

bernard_L · Jul 22, 2025

darkroommike said:
Kodak says two months for a partially used bottle (less than completely full). You are, after all, introducing oxygen into your solution each time you use it and eventually your preservative will be used up. Just one of many reasons I prefer to use developers "one shot". "One and done" means you use fresh developer for each roll you process.

Oxygen in a partly used bottle happens also when using D-76 one shot, and must be addressed all the same. Accordion bottles are not a valid solution (made of HDPE; near-impossible to clean). Some valid solutions:

individual small bottles, filled to the top, and corresponding to one film developed one shot;
wine bag (of proper quality) incorporates an oxygen barrier and only lets developer out, not air in
spray butane after use

darkroommike · Aug 7, 2025

bernard_L said:
Oxygen in a partly used bottle happens also when using D-76 one shot, and must be addressed all the same. Accordion bottles are not a valid solution (made of HDPE; near-impossible to clean). Some valid solutions:

individual small bottles, filled to the top, and corresponding to one film developed one shot;

wine bag (of proper quality) incorporates an oxygen barrier and only lets developer out, not air in

spray butane after use

I make small batches of D-76 and divide into even smaller bottles. I think I will be moving to the Haist version of D-76 when I exhaust my current stash.

Kodak D-76 used stock shelf life

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