The keeping properties of XTOL

Let me start with this: a picture taken on Legacy Pro 100 (aka Acros) and developed in XTOL 1+1:



Nothing special, except for the fact that the XTOL I used was from the bottle on the right:



left: fresh XTOL concentrated stock, right: 7.5 years old unopened concentrated stock.

I mix my XTOL in 2.5l water and in mid 2004 I decided to put away a full bottle of concentrate to periodically check its activity. Well, time went by and a few days ago I found the bottle. First I hesitated and thought that developer must be dead but a drop on a film leader told me it was not dead. I exposed a strip of film and developed as normal.
CI was down to 0.21 instead of the 0.65 I aim at. But a little contrast boost gave a quite usable picture.
Not bad for 7.5 year old developer.

Very nice to see! How do you measure the CI? How did you increase contrast? In the print w a high MG filter or in the dev via agitation and or increased time? Thanks!

I determine the CI with a densitometer and some exposures of a uniformly grey area, in this case 100 ASA with 0, -2 and +2 stops correction. I didn't bother to make a wet print so the contrast enhancement was done "the other way".

Somehow the images have disappeared.

Here they are again:

Let me start with this: a picture taken on Legacy Pro 100 (aka Acros) and developed in XTOL 1+1:



Nothing special, except for the fact that the XTOL I used was from the bottle on the right:



left: fresh XTOL concentrated stock, right: 7.5 years old unopened concentrated stock.

I love the developer. I though XTOL doesn't get dark when it ages?

I had a full sealed bottle of sodium ascorbate 50g/l which went yellow after 5yrs but still worked as a developer when phenidone was added. I think the hydrolysis of ascorbate may cause the yellow color,but after 5yrs most of the ascorbate is still in the original form.
A full sealed bottle of Mytol after 5yrs was yellow.It left blank film but was partly revived by adding fresh phenidone. Probably the phenidone in Mytol hydrolyses more rapidly than the Dimezone-S in Xtol.
Note the above refers to hydrolysis in full sealed glass bottles, not to oxidation by reaction with oxygen from the air which is what usually causes the demise of Xtol.

ath said:

Somehow the images have disappeared.

Here they are again:

Let me start with this: a picture taken on Legacy Pro 100 (aka Acros) and developed in XTOL 1+1:

View attachment 31699

Nothing special, except for the fact that the XTOL I used was from the bottle on the right:

View attachment 31700

left: fresh XTOL concentrated stock, right: 7.5 years old unopened concentrated stock.

Click to expand...

I just started a new thread, I was informed you held the record of 7.5 years on XTOL. Mine was 11 years and two days stored same as yours. I increased development time by 50%. Negatives look good.
Best Regards Mike