Wait 24hrs after mixing ID11?

[Martin Aislabie]

I was told be someone (I cannot remember who) that you should leave ID11 24hrs after mixing to settle before using it.

Is this another old wives tale or is there soemthing to this ?

Thanks

Martin

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

It's a developer with a fair amount of sulfite that sometimes takes a while to dissolve, so it's not a bad idea to mix it in advance, but if you're able to mix it completely and it doesn't look like there's any undissolved powder in the container, then you should be able to use it.

 

[PhotoJim]

You run the risk of having some of the chemicals precipitate if you cool it too quickly, so cooling it naturally makes sense. Since you mix it up a little over 50 degrees C, letting it cool to a comfortable 20 over at least a few hours is wise. I don't know that it's absolutely necessary to wait 24 hours, though.

 

[Anscojohn]

The old lab rats who first taught me darkroom insisted you should always wait 24 hours after mixing chems from powders before using them. Of couse, at that time, most of the chems came in metal cans they opened with their "church keys"--i.e. beer can openers--when they were not being put to their intended use.

 

[MikeSeb]

Commercial D-76 (not sure if true for ID-11) can also show a marked increase in activity over the first few weeks due to hydroquinone-induce pH changes. I use D76H, a homebrew version with no HQ and slightly more metol, which gets around this problem.

This may be another aspect of the "old wives' tale", but it's true.

 

[Aurum]

also you may find leaving the developer to stand for a while allows any dissolved air to come out on its own, rather than nucleating out on the film and causing uneven development

 

[fschifano]

I was taught years ago that it takes about 24 hours for D-76 to stabilize after being mixed. I don't know if that is true today, but it is a practice that I have continued. My negatives are remarkably consistent, so I'm fairly sure that the time frame for this stabilization is not weeks. If the time frame is weeks, then the differences between a day and a couple of weeks is small enough to be of no practical significance. Since ID-11 is a virtual clone of D-76, I would keep to the practice to be on the safe side.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

My impression is that modern packaged D-76 is buffered to prevent the contrast increase over time that it used to have. I haven't used it that much for a few years, so I haven't tested that claim myself.

 

[Ian Grant]

When I used ID-11 in a commercial darkroom we always used it an hour or so after mixing, but as we replenished our deep tanks we would always season a fresh batch with a small amount of the previous batch.

I still do the same with Xtol.

Ian

 

[Martin Aislabie]

Thanks for the help guys.
I guess its not a bad practice to make it up and leave it to settle and cool for a period.
I always filter it when I decant it into 1L bottles
Generaly I am orgainsed enough to be manage my ID11 levels of stock solution so I don't run out mid-session
Martin

 

[fschifano]

There is no need to filter it when decanting. Any undissolved bit will go into solution if you dilute 1+1 just before use. If used straight up, nothing will be stuck to your film after stop, fix and wash anyway, so it's not a problem.

 

[Ian Grant]

There is another trick, filter the fresh solution before use, this ensures that no undissolved crystals are present in the solution.

Ian

 

[gainer]

My understanding is that the use of a borax-boric acid buffer instead of plain borax would eliminate the initial pH jump. If we're talking about D-76 from Kodak or ID-11 from Ilford, the waiting period should not be necessary. Has anyone actually seen the result of using home-brewed D-76 too soon? If I were to test this idea, I would shoot a test roll, develop half in fresh D-76 and the rest after 24 hours.

 

[Rob Archer]

I usually leave it for a couple of hours after mixing to let it cool to usable temperature and I've not noticed any differnce between films processed in 'new' developer and that which has been mixed a couple of weeks - unless I'm not being observant enough!

Rob