Question: How Often Do You "Change" your Stop/Fix?

I use an indicator stop bath, and just wait for the color to change. As for fixer, I reuse it for film for 2-3 months, depending on heaviness of usage. After that, as Aizan does, I drop a small piece of neg in the fixer (while bringing up its temp in a water bath) before starting my development to see how long it takes for the neg to become clear.
 
oh no no no, I was not being sensitive. Sheez. Is it a full moon already? I had a guy giving me the f-word because I honked at him because he was sitting at the green light. oy

I know many people drop a few drops of Photo-flo on the tank if they do their final rinse in the tank. I'm used to using the "rapid" rinser, so that's why I'm in the habit of doing it the "wrong" way...which actually makes your big batch of mixed Photo-flo accumulate impurities. That's all.
 
I still have some Amaloco stop, fixer and wetting agent. Have to get a new bottle of AM74 developer soon.
At the moment I use whatever is left in the photo stores around and that´s Tetenal Ultrafin+ and ID-11.
I use ID-11 1+1 as a one shot developer and Ultrafin+ 1+4 for 6 rolls. Stop is reused until the color changes and fixer for 10 films. I have a Jobo Cascade for washing and just bath the film in the water left in the tank with a drop of wetting agent.

Now that the days get shorter I´ll shoot less and will return to Amaloco AM74 1+19 as a one shot developer soon.

I store used developer and fixer in two 5l gas canisters and bring them to a collecting point, they accept photo chemicals in small amounts with no extra cost, included in my yearly waste disposal bill, but they don't collect them.
It´s allways funny when they wonder why I want my canisters back :)
 
I used to keep a chart on the d'room wall and mark off how many rolls processed in a given batch. I kept that list for many years. Quite an antique!

Now that I machine process (JOBO 1500 drum processor), I deliberately use "one shot" processing which has dramatically standardized my results with all film, both colour and B/W.

For prints, I use an indicator stopbath that is deliberately 'weaker' than the fixer so that it exhausts first. When that happens, I replace both stop & fix. This ensures fixer is always active.
 
dcsang said:
I'm just curious as I usually re-use my stop and fixer but I've noted that I'm getting some tiny white spots on some of the film I've dev'd.
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The white spots are most likely from incomplete fixing and/or washing. (Or they could be tiny silver monsters.)
 
i didn't realize the stop and fix and be used so many times..
i've been using them just for one session, I dumped them after I developed all of my film

guess I should be saving them
 
I don't use a stop bath, and fix film for 2x-3x of the clearing time. Changing the fixer when the clearing time exceeds 2x of the initial for the same film.

I mix the fixer myself, 10g boric acid + 125g hypo anh. per liter, using it both for paper and film. It leaves that slight tint with modern Kodak films but it doesn't bother me much.
 
I use the stop-bath just for one session, and only for lith prints. A wasted print,
because of using the stop-bath to long is more expensive than the stop-bath itself.

I test the fix-bath with Kaliumiodid (5% solution, 1 drop at 1ml) if it stays clear it's ok.
Don't know if Kaliumiodid is the same in engl. language.

/rudi
 
When you guys test the fixer by dropping a strip of film in it, I am assuming it is not exposed to light at all.

Also, I usually mix up more than I need of stop and fix. After I develop one roll (300ml), I'll pour it back in the container I store the chemical in. Is this good practice, or should I pour it into a different container? Would it contaminate the unused chemicals?
Ara
 
Ara Ghajanian said:
When you guys test the fixer by dropping a strip of film in it, I am assuming it is not exposed to light at all.

Also, I usually mix up more than I need of stop and fix. After I develop one roll (300ml), I'll pour it back in the container I store the chemical in. Is this good practice, or should I pour it into a different container? Would it contaminate the unused chemicals?
Ara
Click to expand...

Yes, the piece of film is going to be exposed to light -- it has to, otherwise you wouldn't be able to see when it turns clear (the film dipped in fixer).

I also pour the stop and fix back in. It's not bad practice; it's economical and "environment friendly"; some people who want the very very best kind of development, and never reuse their chemicals. If you reuse your chemicals, it's a good practice to get a new batch of chemicals often; it depends on how many times you've used them or for how long they were last mixed from scratch.
 
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