Old RA-4 Chems. Will the Work?

htmlguru4242

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• Feb 1, 2006

• #1

I've found some RA-4 chemicals, which are probably about 6 - 8 years old; I do not know exactly.

They are in sealed, never-opened containers in their origingal box. The chemicals were stored in the dark at room temperature in a cabinet.

What are the chances of these still being useable?

 

Neal

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• Feb 1, 2006

• #2

Dear htmlguru4242,

If I had found them, I'd give them a try. I just used some 3 year old stuff today. Good luck!

Neal Wydra

 

Photo Engineer

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• Feb 2, 2006

• #3

If the developer (bottle B IIRC) is not discolored, the kit is probably good.

If the fixer smells like rotten eggs, or has floaters, it is not good.

PE

 

Willie Jan

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• Feb 3, 2006

• #4

check if after shake there are hard parts in the developer #1 part. If so it could be out of date....
I used amaloco C41 last month that was stored for over 1 year in the basement, worked fine.

 

FilmIs4Ever

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• Feb 4, 2006

• #5

I'd recommend using some fresh RA-4 chems set up next to the old ones. Take a negative, make two identical exposures on two sheets of paper, and then develop in each set of chemicals. See if the results of the old chemicals are similar enough to the new ones to be acceptable. For an even more accurate comparison, take a densitometer and analyze the two prints to determine if there are any differences in the ammount of fog and color channels.

Regards.

Karl Borowski