I thought I won't have to care about RA4 chemistry for a while. However, it seems I was procrastinating for a little too long. My last period of RA4 printing was from late 2018 to early 2019. I kept pushing the switch back from b/w to RA4.
I had drained and cleaned my Nova slot processor and today I finally started to mix my Kodak Ektacolor chemicals. They were stored in my darkroom, located in a relatives basement. The part B bottles of the developer set didn't look good. I can't remember how dark they looked when I first used it. I had two of four 5L sets left in the box, all remaining containers unopened. And indeed, mixing resulted in a black solution, not the golden colour, which it should have. I am a little suspicious of the blix, but I hope it'll be ok.
I'm wondering, for how long others have been keeping unopened Ektacolor chemicals around? Is two to three years too long?
This set I received from Ag Photographic in the UK in spring 2018. I also bought a second set a year later, because Brexit would soon cut me off from Ag Photographic, the only supplier to consumers. This is stored in my own basement, and after opening the box, I saw that it is gone as well.
Storage was fairly cool. The basement room in my place will reach 20°C, maybe 22°, in hot Summers and is much cooler in winter. My positive dark room is in a relatives boiler room. But with the door open it will have around 22°C during a hot Summer. Up to 25°C when I close the door and do dark room work at some weekends. And the bottom of the shelf at an outside wall, where the chemicals sit should be cooler. In winter I measured chemicals at as low as 12°C.
I check a previously unopened C41 Flexicolor box in my basement and it shows the expected colour of the part with the CD4, btw. Also in the dark room I had kept RA4 tank solution for the whole time, stored in a PET 5L container filled to a third. Unfortunately I just had disposed of it at this years final special waste collection by the county. I thought it's so old, lets make 'fresh' solution.
Now I need new chemicals and available options are not that great. I don't want one of those RA4-kits of dev+blix tank solutions. The Nova pretty much requires a replenishment regime. Fuji makes some great odorless stuff, and there is a single shop, which is selling some of the pro line to private customers. But these are too large and too expensive for me. They make 2x20L, 2x50L or 1x100L.
I never considered Tetenal before, but I finally ordered some of their Monoline developer: 4x 10L. I chose the one with the highest replenishment rate of 160mL/m², which is the original standard rate. The highest possible replenishment rate helps with the low throughput of a private darkroom. That is why my next C41 chems will be Fuji odorless dev with 60mL replenishment per film. That set also makes 2x5L, which is more convenient than the 2x10L Flexicolour.
Monoline chems are a single solution, which requires only dilution. I do have an empty 10L container, already. Made from very thick PE, a very wide lid and looks like a milk can, including handle. Sold by a lab supply company for chemical storage. I use a 5L version for Flexicolour tank solution and Xtol.
Does anyone have experience with the shelf live of these unopened Monoline chemicals?
Apparently it didn't help to have the Kodak product split in three components.And colour tanks solution in large, airtight containers seem to keep for months and even years. So maybe the Monoline stuff turns out to be the way to go. It's basically a 10x concentrate. I'd be very worried about their Monoline blix, though.
The incoming package will provide me with 40L of replenisher from four bottles of concentrate. That is a bit much, depending on the shelf life of the unopened bottles. If anyone in Germany or the EU wants some, I'd offer the other bottles at cost plus shipping. That is €32,46 for each bottle (yielding 10L replenisher). Should be a 2kg parcel. Germany with DHL would be €5 and EU countries €14, I believe. I also ordered starter and could fill a small bottle to go with it. I'll be using the chemicals at 35°C, meaning I won't be able to say anything about room temp processing. The next thing will be that my Kodak Endura paper is two years old, now, as well...
I had drained and cleaned my Nova slot processor and today I finally started to mix my Kodak Ektacolor chemicals. They were stored in my darkroom, located in a relatives basement. The part B bottles of the developer set didn't look good. I can't remember how dark they looked when I first used it. I had two of four 5L sets left in the box, all remaining containers unopened. And indeed, mixing resulted in a black solution, not the golden colour, which it should have. I am a little suspicious of the blix, but I hope it'll be ok.
I'm wondering, for how long others have been keeping unopened Ektacolor chemicals around? Is two to three years too long?
This set I received from Ag Photographic in the UK in spring 2018. I also bought a second set a year later, because Brexit would soon cut me off from Ag Photographic, the only supplier to consumers. This is stored in my own basement, and after opening the box, I saw that it is gone as well.
Storage was fairly cool. The basement room in my place will reach 20°C, maybe 22°, in hot Summers and is much cooler in winter. My positive dark room is in a relatives boiler room. But with the door open it will have around 22°C during a hot Summer. Up to 25°C when I close the door and do dark room work at some weekends. And the bottom of the shelf at an outside wall, where the chemicals sit should be cooler. In winter I measured chemicals at as low as 12°C.
I check a previously unopened C41 Flexicolor box in my basement and it shows the expected colour of the part with the CD4, btw. Also in the dark room I had kept RA4 tank solution for the whole time, stored in a PET 5L container filled to a third. Unfortunately I just had disposed of it at this years final special waste collection by the county. I thought it's so old, lets make 'fresh' solution.
Now I need new chemicals and available options are not that great. I don't want one of those RA4-kits of dev+blix tank solutions. The Nova pretty much requires a replenishment regime. Fuji makes some great odorless stuff, and there is a single shop, which is selling some of the pro line to private customers. But these are too large and too expensive for me. They make 2x20L, 2x50L or 1x100L.
I never considered Tetenal before, but I finally ordered some of their Monoline developer: 4x 10L. I chose the one with the highest replenishment rate of 160mL/m², which is the original standard rate. The highest possible replenishment rate helps with the low throughput of a private darkroom. That is why my next C41 chems will be Fuji odorless dev with 60mL replenishment per film. That set also makes 2x5L, which is more convenient than the 2x10L Flexicolour.
Monoline chems are a single solution, which requires only dilution. I do have an empty 10L container, already. Made from very thick PE, a very wide lid and looks like a milk can, including handle. Sold by a lab supply company for chemical storage. I use a 5L version for Flexicolour tank solution and Xtol.
Does anyone have experience with the shelf live of these unopened Monoline chemicals?
Apparently it didn't help to have the Kodak product split in three components.And colour tanks solution in large, airtight containers seem to keep for months and even years. So maybe the Monoline stuff turns out to be the way to go. It's basically a 10x concentrate. I'd be very worried about their Monoline blix, though.
The incoming package will provide me with 40L of replenisher from four bottles of concentrate. That is a bit much, depending on the shelf life of the unopened bottles. If anyone in Germany or the EU wants some, I'd offer the other bottles at cost plus shipping. That is €32,46 for each bottle (yielding 10L replenisher). Should be a 2kg parcel. Germany with DHL would be €5 and EU countries €14, I believe. I also ordered starter and could fill a small bottle to go with it. I'll be using the chemicals at 35°C, meaning I won't be able to say anything about room temp processing. The next thing will be that my Kodak Endura paper is two years old, now, as well...
Last edited:
