Shelf Life of Ilfosol S

[rusty71]

I bought a bottle of Ilfosol S last week and developed a roll of Efke IR 820.
Admittedly this film is slow, but the negs looked very thin and weak.
I'm wondering if the developer is still good. It was a fresh bottle with the seal intact, opened just before mixing;can Ilfosol S go bad while sealed?

I've got a couple of rolls of HP-5+ to process and I'm a bit wary....

 

[GeoffHill]

I don't know about how long it stays fresh, but it's not the best stuff to dev HP5 in.

 

[Rich Ullsmith]

Ilfosol has a notoriously short shelf life, but if you just cracked the bottle then I doubt that is your problem. In my (limited) experience with this film, it's very slow, and there's not as much IR out there at this time of year, with the sun where it is. Perhaps somebody out here with more experience with this film can expound on that. Thin negs are almost always the result of underexposure. IR film + new developer = thin negs. . .bet my meager paycheck on underexposure.

 

[rusty71]

Thanks guys. I think you're right and will save the Ilfosol for some Pan F. Found my DD-X which is much better for HP-5+

 

[Steve Roberts]

Admittedly this film is slow, but the negs looked very thin and weak.
....

I've always struggled to get decent negs out of Ilfosol (or Awfulsol, as a friend calls it). The development times quoted always seem to be far less than what is actually required and half-full bottles do just suddenly die. The main selling points of Ilfosol to me seem to be the fact that it's sold in small quantities (250cc) at a low price (about £2.75) so it doesn't cost you a fortune if part of the bottle goes bad before it's used. (A couple of months after opening a bottle I always check that it's still active before trusting a film to it.)

Steve

 

[patricia de roeck]

Bin it Rusty!! I bought several bottles of this stuff because it came in small quantities - first time I used it I had no image at all on the film so just threw the lot in the bin - trouble is you have no way of knowing how old it is when you even buy it so it could be useless by the time it leaves the warehouse for all we know - yes, it's shelf life is notoriously short. Gone back to the drawing board and wait until I have 3 or 4 films to dev then make up some utterly reliable IDll. Just another lesson learned I guess!
patricia

 

[rusty71]

"Bin it" is right! Thought I was getting a bargain, but "Awfulsol" is just too unreliable. Going back to F-76+ and Rodinal. Luckily I developed my HP-5+ in F76+ and they look just great, even shot at 800. Life is too short and film too valuable to waist on bad developers.