Kodak Sodium Fixer Reusability

[DanielJohannes]

Hi everyone,

I recently started developing Tri-X with a setup of Kodak d-76, Ilfostop and Kodak Sodium Fixer.

I know that developer should be used one shot, and Ilfostop will discolour when exhausted. But, for the life of me, I can't find a definitive answer on the re-usability of my fixer.

Does anyone know how many rolls of 35mm I can process with a 3.8 litre mix? If not, does anyone know where I can find a copy of the spec sheet? I've looked everywhere online, but for some reason it isn't on Kodak's website, or anywhere else so far as I can tell.

Thanks

 

[finguanzo]

Tmax about 60, other films about 100 for the 3.8 I Think. Should say it on the bag, 2 different columns, one for paper one for film.
Regardless, a clip test is your friend...

 

[Freakscene]

Fix for twice the clearing time: http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/fixer exhaustion.html
And throw it out when the clearing time is 2x that of fresh fixer, or (for film) reaches 6g/L silver. Fixer will continue to 'fix' after you should throw it out, so 'exhaustion' isn't really an appropriate term for fixer.

Marty

 

[joeswe]

Exactly what marty said.

Fix time is twice the clearing time, discard when fixing time has doubled (for the same type of film!) vs fresh fixer

This is article one as laid down in the constitution of darkroom work and irrespective of what type of fixing bath or what type of film you use.

the link posted by marty doesn't work in my browser, so I post it again:
http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/fixer exhaustion.html


One more advice: a common mistake among beginners is to neglect proper agitation during fixing. This is at least in part thanks to a stubborn urban legend claiming that agitation is important during development but not during fixing. The result is that 80% of the "what went wrong here?" threads concerning film processing turn out to be fixing errors in the form of underfixing. So make sure you don't overuse fixer, mix it correctly, agitate correctly (3 or 4 of inversions every 30 seconds will do), keep an eye on the temperature of the solution and don't use fixer that is milky or shows precipitate or smells like rotten eggs.

 

[john_s]

......
One more advice: a common mistake among beginners is to neglect proper agitation during fixing. This is at least in part thanks to a stubborn urban legend claiming that agitation is important during development but not during fixing.....

And also: I have a theory, backed up by some observations over decades of film development in inversion tanks, that agitation during fixing tends to prevent any tiny bits of dust that might have found their way into the system from adhering to the film.