Yellow Ilfosol, no problem

[markinlondon]

Hi,
I'm perplexed. I read in an earlier thread people's thoughts on Ilfosol S and had the opportunity to try it while in New Zealand recently (read: only developer in the shops that didn't look 5 years old). The bottle when opened proved to be brown but a clip test indicated that with a little extra development things should be fine. And they were, this is now my favourite for FP4 and HP5 as it gives similar results to DDX, but with tighter grain and is much cheaper.
So I bought two bottles from Silverprint the other day, shot a test roll of HP5 to refine the times, opened the bottle and... strong yellow colour. Decided to go ahead and all OK 7.5mins @ 20C 1+14dil HP5@400. Negs print fine on MGIV at grade 2.

Does anyone else have experience of this or am I just very fortunate?

Relieved,

Mark

 

[jmdavis]

.........
So I bought two bottles from Silverprint the other day, shot a test roll of HP5 to refine the times, opened the bottle and... strong yellow colour. Decided to go ahead and all OK 7.5mins @ 20C 1+14dil HP5@400. Negs print fine on MGIV at grade 2.

Does anyone else have experience of this or am I just very fortunate?
Mark

As it gets older and starts to oxidize, it turns more brown. In my experience the Yellow is the normal color. But, my usual times for HP5 are 7-7.5 minutes at 1:9 and 20C. I've never really needed to use Ilfosol at 1:14.

 

[markinlondon]

As it gets older and starts to oxidize, it turns more brown. In my experience the Yellow is the normal color. But, my usual times for HP5 are 7-7.5 minutes at 1:9 and 20C. I've never really needed to use Ilfosol at 1:14.

Thanks for that, didn't realise yellow was normal, I am much relieved. My times and dilution are from previous experience with Ilford recommended times adjusted for a) very hard water and b) a vicious old school condensor enlarger. I wouldn't advise anyone else take my data as gospel. 1:14 gives me a reasonable time as 1:9 would push me under 5 mins and thus allowing for too much error for one as careless as me.

Thanks again,

Mark

 

[Steve Roberts]

Mark,
Do watch out for Ilfosol when the bottle has been part used and hanging around for a while. Last year I developed a film in Ilfosol that had been part-used and hanging around for about three months and even though the colour wasn't especially dark, I got a totally blank film (fortunately only half a dozen tabletop shots that were easily repeated). If using Ilfosol that has been previously opened and lying around for more than a couple of weeks, I now make up a small amount of Ilfosol a bit stronger than working strength and throw in a piece of exposed film leader to check that it turns black before making up the working strength solution for a film. Not a very scientific test, but it tells me that the developer still has life in it! I've often wished they would sell Ilfosol in one-shot sealed tubs, a bit like UHT milk.
Best wishes,
Steve

 

[jmdavis]

Steve,

Same here recently with some older ilfosol. I thought that it was only 3 months old and oops. It was actually more than six months old. Basically blank film.

But, I have used 1-3 month old ilfosol without noticeable problems. The strip test is a very good idea.

Mike

 

[markinlondon]

Steve, Mike,

thanks for the tips, I like the idea of one-shot ampoules. this could help a lot. It was a clip test that told me all would be well with the first (brown) bottle, albeit with reduced activity. I had a similar experience with Paterson FX-50, it just died with no colour change and have heard the same re Xtol. Is this peculiar to ascorbate based developers?

Mark

 

[gainer]

The first stage of oxidation of ascorbates is pretty much colorless. If enough of the ascorbate reaches that stage, the solution is no longer a developer for practical purposes. The phenidone or other agent without the superadditivity of ascorbate is much too weak.

Ryuji Suzuki has been testing the use of salicylic acid as a chelating agent to keep iron, IIRC the ferrous form, from catalyzing the oxidation. A salicylate could be added to commercial ascorbate developers such as Xtol or FX-50, or you can mix one of his formulas from scratch.