Looking in my darkroom box

wogster

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• Jun 14, 2009

• #1

I have a partly used bottle of Ilford DD-X, a partly used bottle of Ilford odourless indicator stop bath and a partly used bottle of Ilford Fixer, all purchased just after Christmas 2006. I got away from doing film for a while, so which ones do I toss without even looking at?

I figure the DD-X is dead will try to get a kids medicine measuring needle thing (what do they call those) and an bottle of HC110. Wondering about the Fix and Stop though.

 

archphoto

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• Jun 14, 2009

• #2

You can test the fix by just putting a piece of non-developed film in it: if it clears the film, it should be OK.
Stopbath is citric acid I beleve and should not give a problem either.

Peter

 

fschifano

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• Jun 14, 2009

• #3

Stop bath has an almost indefinite shelf life. Fixers last a long time too, but can go bad. If the fixer is cloudy or smells of sulphur, it's gone. Toss it and don't look back. The developer is certainly shot by now. Liquid concentrated developers have a fairly short shelf life, shorter when opened. The only really long lasting ones are HC-110 and Rodinal. All others have a shelf life of 6 months or less.

 

OP

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wogster

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• Jun 14, 2009

• #4

fschifano said:

Stop bath has an almost indefinite shelf life. Fixers last a long time too, but can go bad. If the fixer is cloudy or smells of sulphur, it's gone. Toss it and don't look back. The developer is certainly shot by now. Liquid concentrated developers have a fairly short shelf life, shorter when opened. The only really long lasting ones are HC-110 and Rodinal. All others have a shelf life of 6 months or less.

Click to expand...

I'll toss the developer and probably the fix as well....

 

MattKing

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• Jun 14, 2009

• #5

If the fixer isn't cloudy and doesn't smell of sulphur, it's worth checking for activity.

A clip test will check the fixer for you - if a short piece of 35mm film clears in a minute or so (slightly longer for T-grain films), it should be usable.

Matt

 

fschifano

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• Jun 14, 2009

• #6

But here's the thing, and I've had this happen to me. Even if the fixer is a little cloudy, it will have some capacity to dissolve the silver halides. The problem is that the cloudiness is made of small particles of sulfur that can and will stick to the emulsion. Washing may not remove this crud, and when the film dries these particles will be stuck there for good. Result = ruined film. Not worth the risk.