Mystery Chemistry, to me anyway

[JOE1951]

Hello

I've have a can of Gaf VIVIDOL sitting in a kitchen drawer for the past few years. I got from an older photographer who was abandoning his darkroom.

I have never heard of this stuff. The sealed metal can is in great shape and the stuff inside sounds nice and powdery, the labelling suggests the mid 70's.

It claims to be both a paper and film developer depending on how you dilute it from a standard stock solution.

A quick google search didn't come up with much.

Anyone with experience with this stuff?

 

[RayPA]

does it have an ingredients listing on it?

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Quite strange; I tried my own Google search and only got two pseudo hits; in a nutshell, it appears that this is meant to be a film and paper developer. Apparently a "cold tone developer" akin to D-72/Dektol. It seems it was used a very long time ago, in the 50s and 60s. So I'd guess it's as safe as anything else that was considered safe back then (DDT, white lead paint, fire retardants, who knows) so I'd handle it with extreme care.

Hope that helps.

 

[Seele]

Apparently a "cold tone developer" akin to D-72/Dektol. It seems it was used a very long time ago, in the 50s and 60s. So I'd guess it's as safe as anything else that was considered safe back then (DDT, white lead paint, fire retardants, who knows) so I'd handle it with extreme care.

Normally a chemical with a name instead of a number signifies a proprietary formula rather than a published one, so I fear it might not be easy to find out what is in this developer. However, I do feel that it is not likely to contain anything too vicious, after all, even D-72 was at first described as a dual-purpose developer for both film and paper.

Speaking of which, I do miss the old Ilford Ilfospeed deveper (not the Ilfospeed Multigrade) which also worked as a fine grain film developer at 1:60 to 1:100 dilutions, as I was quite a cheapskate back then it certainly was a lot of bang for my buck. The Multigrade version andl later formulations do not work with any degree of success.

 

[JOE1951]

Hello again

There are instructions on the back that are nothing more than general times and dilutions.

papers: 1:2 Dilution 45secs - 2mins for "Cyko", "Jet" and "Cykora" (?!) papers or similar. I've never heard of these, probably GAF products.

film: 1:1 Dilution, 3mins in tray, 4 mins in a tank 68 degrees. 1:3 dilution for softer results with same times. No film names mentioned.

As far as ingredients all it says is:

CONTAINS: HYDROQUIONE, METOL AND MILD ALKALI, and general suggestion to induce vomiting and call a doctor if decide to eat it. 😉

I'm tempted to mix it up and see what it does, but I'm just curious if any one has used it or has heard of it.

cheers

 

[JOE1951]

Vividol = GAF-125 = D-72

Vividol = GAF-125 = D-72

Hello again

Following up on the suggestion that Vividol is probably close to Kodak D-72 appears to be true.

Googling for Kodak D-72 formulas has brought up GAF-125, the processing instructions of which seems to be very similar to my can of Vividol.

So what makes Vividol different from GAF-125? Who knows, probably not enough of a difference to stop me from trying it now!

Thanks for the replies

 

[Tin]

ALthough I vaguely remember seeing the name Vividol years ago, it didn't know any thing about it. However, based on your descriptions and my experience years ago with developers that could be used for both film and paper, I'd say that it is probably not a very fine grain developer for film. So it should be a suitable developer for medium format films. As for 35mm film, you shouldn't plan to make very large enlargements with this type of developers. Of course for your trial run, you should not use a film that contains anything important, in case the chemical properties of the developer had already changed and lost their effectiveness. One quick hint is then when you open the can, the powders should not have a dark brown colour. If it does, it means that the developing agent hydroquinone had been partially or totally oxidized, and is thus useless. Some light coloration is probably OK. (If I remember correctly, when comapred to metol, it is hydroquinone that is less stable and would oxidize sooner. If not, then it is the other way.)

Good luck with your experiment.

 

[JOE1951]

Vividol Update!!!

Vividol Update!!!

Hello

Mixed up the can of Vividol and It seems fine. A slight brown colour as I should expect from an old chemical (early 70's?). Mixed 1:2 as directed and printed 6 8x10 Ilford Multigrade prints last night. Prints look fine.

This stuff seems quite close to Dektol, so I won't be processing films with it!

It's reassuring to think that a thirty year old can of chemistry is still usable after all this time.

Gotta love analog!

Regards

 

[phototone]

These "dual purpose" developers from the 1950's and 1960's were definately NOT for minature films such as 35mm, rather were suitable for sheet films in a pinch.