very old chemicals..useable?

[kuuan]

the Durst enlarger that I had bought together with my brother as teenager in the late 1970 just returned to me 🙂
including some chemicals that won't be much younger, I guess they are from the middle of the 1980s.


Untitled by kuuan's lens tests, on Flickr

is there any chance that any of them might still be useable, and if so, how to test?
thank you for any hint!

 

[Steve M.]

Your first link shows that the photo is unavailable.

It's easy enough to mix up the chemicals and do clip tests to see if things are still good.

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...-oke-is-there-a-quick-and-dirty-method.90027/

 

[Bill Clark]

What does the ID-11 look like in the package?

The other three I’d get rid of.

Chemicals, especially in those small bottles are cheap.

 

[kuuan]

Your first link shows that the photo is unavailable.

It's easy enough to mix up the chemicals and do clip tests to see if things are still good.

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...-oke-is-there-a-quick-and-dirty-method.90027/

thank you Steve.
can you see the photo now?
right..once the darkroom is set up I best simply try with small clippings

 

[kuuan]

What does the ID-11 look like in the package?

The other three I’d get rid of.

Chemicals, especially in those small bottles are cheap.

now only I checked. the fixer seems not to be the original but simply vinegar anyways! I suppose that it's the very vinegar I used early 1980s, a while before my brother took the set to his house, meaning that he never used it..

the contents of the ID-11 are looking good, the powders in the envelops have not become hard, still is powder form


Untitled by kuuan's lens tests, on Flickr

 

[kuuan]

two more questions:

the lamp of the Durst enlarger is broken: does it need to be a special enlarger lamp? or could it be any 75mm bulb with milky glass?

the red lamp for darkroom: does it need to be a special lamp, or will a red "party" lamp do?

 

[Bill Clark]

I believe you need a light bulb without the printing that most manufacturers put on the end of glass.
The printing can goof up the light for enlarging.

The ID-11 appears OK. I have ID-11 with the powder pretty hard in package and I break it up before mixing and it works fine for me.

I use a Paterson red light. I don’t have issues with fogging the paper.

Suggest check either Freestyle or B&H.

 

[Emile de Leon]

Get rid of em..don't even think twice..
Get fresh...be happy..!

 

[julio1fer]

The ID-11 should be good unless it went through high temperatures, you can do a clip test to be sure.

Enlarger lamps usually cannot be substituted by standard household bulbs with satisfactory results, but I do not know about your Durst model. I tried this many years ago in other enlarger and illumination on the negative was not even enough.

Red darkroom lamps should not give any light outside the red wavelength band; lab lamps are designed to do that. Household ("party") colored lamps may have a different light spectrum and fog your expensive printing paper, even if they look red enough to the eye. However I believe that you could get by with a red LED lamp if light intensity is not too high; this I have never tried.

With paper prices these days I would not try to save on the lamps; just my opinion.

 

[Moto-Uno]

^Does anybody still use lamps in darkrooms ? Time and temp have pretty well eclipsed those methods haven't they ? Peter

 

[Bolo Kukus]

Years ago I did what Kuuan is thinking/planning/wanting to do and ruined three rolls of valuable black-and-white film by sh#t processing with old film developer.

Take this old goof's advice and throw out ALL those chemicals! Fresh stocks are cheap and easily replaced. Using old chemistry is false economy and at worse may be downright disastrous.

Moto-Uno (#10) seems to be confusing darkroom safelights with enlarger lamps. They are two entirely different beasts and one cannot be substituted for the other, unless of course you enjoy courting disaster.

All this information is freely available and easily accessed via Google.

 

[KenR]

Rotten eggs?

Rotten eggs?

Would you cook with spoiled milk or rotten eggs? Get rid of the old junk and buy some new chemicals!

 

[kuuan]

thank you everybody for your suggestions.
"Finding" these old chemicals had made me curious if there is anything interesting as is with use of expired film but it becomes clear now that better I get new ones. I may try out the ID-11 film developper though.

And yes, google helps! I found various articles of enlarger lamps beeing substituted by LED lamps, e.g.: http://www.faikee.net/?p=5493 of relevance also this info on Kelvins, Lumens and Watt: https://www.earthled.com/blogs/led-...e-difference-between-lumens-kelvins-and-watts

Peter / Moto-Uno, it has been over 35 years since last I worked in a darkroom I don't know better and google didn't help me much here: what else to use than red / safe lights while printing?

note: I am in Europe. if suggesting where to buy I'd need shops in Europe, not B&H or other in the US. Found one place in the U.K. that sells enlarger lamps, I am tempted to try out LED though.

 

[Skiff]

note: I am in Europe. if suggesting where to buy I'd need shops in Europe, not B&H or other in the US. Found one place in the U.K. that sells enlarger lamps, I am tempted to try out LED though.

For Europeans:
https://www.fotoimpex.com/
https://www.facebook.com/FOTOIMPEX/

Huge supply and variety, excellent service, shipping worldwide, very attractive prices, very enthusiastic staff (it's the sister company of Adox).
They also have enlarger lamps:
https://www.fotoimpex.com/darkroom/enlarger-components/

Ars-imago:
http://www.ars-imago.com/index.php?language=en

AG-Photographic:
https://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/

Nordfoto:
https://www.nordfoto.de/analoge-fotografie

 

[kuuan]

For Europeans:
https://www.fotoimpex.com/
https://www.facebook.com/FOTOIMPEX/

Huge supply and variety, excellent service, shipping worldwide, very attractive prices, very enthusiastic staff (it's the sister company of Adox).
They also have enlarger lamps:
https://www.fotoimpex.com/darkroom/enlarger-components/

Ars-imago:
http://www.ars-imago.com/index.php?language=en

AG-Photographic:
https://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/

Nordfoto:
https://www.nordfoto.de/analoge-fotografie

thank you very much for providing these very useful links to shops!
hope that I will be able to show some self developed pics soon 🙂