Which of these chemicals might still be good?

[TattyJJ]

I've just been out to pick up a bunch of kit someone was giving away, including a load of chemicals.
I've no idea how old they are, except for the silver magic which has Aug 1985 on the inside of the box.
They would all appear to be unopened and new except for one of the bottles of fix which had had a tiny bit taken out.

What's the chances of any of these still being useable?

Ta muchly

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

One think I can tell you: the Ilford ones are all from the 80s.
See: http://www.photomemorabilia.co.uk/Ilford/Chronology/Ilford_bw_films_mid80s.pdf

 

[R.Gould]

Fixer and stop bath might be OK, as for the rest, depends upon how old they are, judgeing from the Paterson chemistry I would guess it mu8st be very old indeed, they have not used those bottles for at least 15 to 20 years so not good at all.I would not like to use any of the liquead chemistry at all, I have never even heard of Neofin ROT and Barfen have not been around for a number of years, unless you really want to try the developers I would dispose of the lot,

 

[TattyJJ]

I expected as much, if the liquid emission was from the 80's i was assuming the rest probably was too....
My thinking is the liquid developers are likely no good anymore, but the rest including the powder developers might well still be fine?

 

[pentaxuser]

I see no reason why the powder chemicals shouldn't be OK provided the packets are still sealed. As for the liquid print and film developer all you could do is try them. Use, say, a 4x5 piece of printing paper for a negative and see what you get. For film, try developing a film leader in room/daylight for the time specified by the developer for that film, then fix and rinse. The leader should turn black. Hold it up against a clear incandescent lamp filament such as a clear 75/100W bulb. If the leader turns the filament into a white/orange coloured wire then the developer would appear to have done its job. Try a few negs from an exposed film that you can afford to lose, just in case.

Part of the fun with old chems is trying them out. If you cannot afford any failure at all, dump them.

pentaxuser

 

[TattyJJ]

I see no reason why the powder chemicals shouldn't be OK provided the packets are still sealed. As for the liquid print and film developer all you could do is try them. Use, say, a 4x5 piece of printing paper for a negative and see what you get. For film, try developing a film leader in room/daylight for the time specified by the developer for that film, then fix and rinse. The leader should turn black. Hold it up against a clear incandescent lamp filament such as a clear 75/100W bulb. If the leader turns the filament into a white/orange coloured wire then the developer would appear to have done its job. Try a few negs from an exposed film that you can afford to lose, just in case.

Part of the fun with old chems is trying them out. If you cannot afford any failure at all, dump them.

pentaxuser

Actually that's a really good idea! I have a load of expired Tmax i could take a few sample shots with, split the film and test, same goes for paper as i've some old foggy Ilford III can try it out on!

 

[bernard_L]

If I were you, Id' dump all the liquid chemicals except maybe the stop bath. Inside the fixer bottle you'll probably find some solid sulfur deposit... Developers woll be brown...

 

[TattyJJ]

I think it's worth trying 1 or 2 of them out.
At worst I'll loose a few pennies worth of film and paper, at best I'll gain a load of chemicals for free

 

[pentaxuser]

Just bear in mind that MGIII is so old that it may have lost contrast as well as being age-fogged. No problem in itself but the problem might arise in working out if it's the developer or the paper than results in very grey, flat prints from a negative . I'd be tempted to expose a piece of MGIII to roomlight then develop. The paper should go to quite a deep black if the paper developer is still good.

pentaxuser

 

[TattyJJ]

Just bear in mind that MGIII is so old that it may have lost contrast as well as being age-fogged. No problem in itself but the problem might arise in working out if it's the developer or the paper than results in very grey, flat prints from a negative . I'd be tempted to expose a piece of MGIII to roomlight then develop. The paper should go to quite a deep black if the paper developer is still good.

pentaxuser

I've already tried some out to see how it behaves, indeed has lost a LOT of contrast. But i should be able to compare the results, so long as it comes out just as foggy and lacking contrast i know it's still ok

Bit of searching online revels the Neofin Rot at least has been used up to 10 years old without any signs of the developer degrading. Might yet be something good here

 

[RauschenOderKorn]

The powders and the stop bath should be ok.

If I am not wrong, the Neofin stuff came highly concentrated in sealed glass containers. If so, it should be fine, too.

The rest, give it a try if it does not cost you much, but don't expect much.

 

[TattyJJ]

Indeed they are in little single use vials, only one has been used.