Short lifespan developers

sienarot · Dec 29, 2006

I just finished doing some developing only to find out my entire strip of film came out blank. The culprit: expired Ilfosol. I thought it looked a little odd prior to developing as it was a dark brown colour, but shrugged it off as I had not used it in months. It wasn't until afterwards did I realize that it was supposed to a be strong yellow colour. A quick search confirmed Ilfosol as having a reputation for dying quickly, though I was unaware of this until just now.

Fortunately there wasn't any of great importance on that roll, just some experimenting with the Holga. If anything, it was a good lesson: stick with Rodinal

Are there other developers out there that have a reputation of short shelf life? XTOL and Ilfosol seem to come up frequently in my searches.

dpurdy · Dec 29, 2006

Actually the same thing happend to me using Rodinal once. I had the small size bottle and it was right at 6 months and was a dark brown out of the bottle and the film was completely clear after processing.

reub2000 · Dec 29, 2006

How does a concentrate go bad?

sienarot · Dec 29, 2006

dpurdy said:
Actually the same thing happend to me using Rodinal once. I had the small size bottle and it was right at 6 months and was a dark brown out of the bottle and the film was completely clear after processing.

Oh really? I thought Rodinal lasted a bit longer than that... Good to know though.

gainer · Dec 29, 2006

Concentrates dissolved in organic solvents like the glycols or triethanolamine ought not go bad soon. HC110 has a long storage life undiluted. There are many homebrews like PC-TEA that last long until diluted. The concentrates put up in water go bad the same way as diluted developers. Rodinal is usually the exception to that rule. I have tested some I couldn't see through in the pitcher after dilution that worked just fine.

Next time, use a snip test to make sure the developer is still active.

P C Headland · Dec 29, 2006

dpurdy said:
Actually the same thing happend to me using Rodinal once. I had the small size bottle and it was right at 6 months and was a dark brown out of the bottle and the film was completely clear after processing.

That's odd, since Rodinal will usually last for years in a partially full bottle, even when it is very dark coloured. 6 months is nothing for Rodinal - mine's been open over 18 months now, still working fine.

My batch of Diafine quit on me last week though, after about two years. Last but one roll didn't come out quite as good as usual, then the last one came out completely blank. I did notice that solution A had gone a rather dark yellow colour, much darker than I remember previously.

Fotohuis · Dec 29, 2006

Almost 3 1/2 years is running our Rodinal ageing test (concentrate) now. We are testing on the sensiometric film curve, so with a Heiland TRD-Z densitometer.

Working solutions of the 'one shot' Rodinal developer, should be used within a very short time.
Oxidation is always the problem when a developer is not working. There are a few 'tricks' to prolong the lifetime of a stock or a liquid concentrate.

Roger Hicks · Dec 29, 2006

reub2000 said:
How does a concentrate go bad?

Hydrolysis. Worse still, although oxidation products are normally brown, hydrolysis products can be clear, i.e. the developer still looks OK but isn't. Plain Phenidone is quite bad in this respect, which is why most manufacturers use other pyrazolidones (essentially Phenidone variations) instead.

Cheers,

R. (www.rogerandfrances.com)

reellis67 · Dec 31, 2006

My Rodinal is two years old and 1/4 full - still working great! It's deep red, but gives results that are indistinguishable from negative developed when the bottle was new. Diafine is also a long-lived developer, but there are many developers that have a much shorter lifespan. I can't get into details much since Rodinal is my main developer and I've used few others.

- Randy

Short lifespan developers

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