Old Fixer Usage

[Francesco]

Last night I printed with fresh fixer, putting in about 11 8x10s before returning it into its container together with half again fresh solution. I have some negatives I want to develop tonight and have no fresh fixer left. My question is whether I can use the same fixer as last night to develop 2 8x10 negatives? If not, what are the possible ill effects of using this fixer? Thanks in advance.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Should be fine. If you're unsure, take a snip of film like a leader from some 35mm, put it in the fixer and see how long it takes to clear, and then fix the real film for twice that time.

At times I've used the same batch of fixer for both printing and negs, but now I keep separate batches to prevent staining of prints from antihalation dyes that come out of film, pyro stain, and such. That's not a concern, though, if you're using fixer from printing for film.

 

[Jorge Oliveira]

Qoting from a post in R.P.D:

"The following are Grant Haist's recommendations for paper fixer capacities:

One-bath fixation: Commercial Archival

Paper:

Max. Ag conc.: 0.3 g/l 0.05 g/l
Max. sheets/gal: 30 8x10 5 8x10
Non-image Ag in paper: 0.005 mg/in^2 0

Two bath fixation: Commercial Archival

Paper:

Bath 1:Max. Ag conc.: 2 g/l 0.8 g/l
Max. sheets/gal: 200 8x10 70 8x10

Bath 2:
Max. Ag conc.: 0.3 g/l 0.05 g/l
after 200 after 70

Non-image Ag in paper: 0.005 mg/in^2 0"
(sorry if it's not very legible - it's supposed to be a table, but I couldn't do it)

So, from above, two bath fix is better - and cheaper...

An exausted fixer may clear a film - but will not really fix it from an archival viewpoint.
Just a note: Modern films, specially T grain ones, are rich in silver iodide, that exausts fixers very quickly.


Jorge O

 

[Black Dog]

Ilford say that Hypam at 1+4 will fix 40 8x10s per litre.So you'll be fine.