What would you do?

[blw]

Okay....I've been sitting on several exposed rolls of b&w film for months now and next week's vacation to Kentucky should provide plenty of time to develop some film (the vacation is the wife's union convention, so I will have most days to myself to do as I wish).

The problem is I have chemistry of suspect quality. I have one bag of Kodak D-76 (to make 1 gallon of stock developer) with an expiration of 5/2008 on it. I also have a 5 liter mix of xTol dated 12/2005 still in the bags. I think it's safe to say that no one here would try the xTol (or is there?); but would anyone trust chemistry only 2 months out of date?

While I'm talking about pressing one's luck....I also have a FULL 1/2 gallon bottle of Kodak fixer mixed up 10/22/2007 and not opened since that night. There's also another 1/2 gallon bottle of fixer (only about 1/3 full and from the 10/22 batch) that was used for a printing session 2/11. Is there any chance any of the fixer is still good?

I also have some dektol saved in brown glass bottles (full) from that 2/11/2008 session. Should that dektol still be alright for some printing I need to do in the next month or so?

Thanks in advance,

barry

 

[blw]

I forgot to mention that I have about 7 rolls of film to develop.

I have 2 rolls of Delta 400 already loaded on the reels in the tank. I also have 2 rolls of HP5+, 1 roll of TMAX, 1 roll of APX100 pushed 2 stops, and one roll of cheap C41 color film I just want to try in b&w for "****es & giggles".

For what it's worth, I have a lot of the cheap C41 to blow through. Perhaps I should run all that through the xTol?

Thanks again.

 

[gb hill]

I know unopened powdered developers last a long time. I read where fixer smells like sulphur when bad. You could cut off a snippet if film leader a see how long it takes to clear the neg. That should give you an idea. The rest I would throw away. Or get some cheap B&W film to play with.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Shoot a roll of film just to test the D-76 (should be fine). Cheaper than float-testing the dev. Better still, cut the film in half and separately test BOTH D-76 and Xtol.

Fixer: tear off a 35mm film leader or cut off 1/4 inch of 220 (sticky-tape end). Put a drop of fixer on it. Let act 20 sec or so. Drop leader/clip into fixer.Time how long it takes for cleared spot to vanish. Fix for at least 2x /at most 3x vanishing time. If vanishing time is over 30 sec., be suspicious of fixer.

Cheers,

R.

 

[FrankS]

Hi Roger, this is how I test my fixer and determine fixing time:

Use a short peice of exposed film like you suggest, fill 1/2 of the bottle cap of the fixer with fixer and immerse the middle of the short film piece in it. Agitate occaisionally and keep track of the clearing time. With my Kodak fixer last time, this took 2 1/2 minutes so I fixed the real film for 6 minutes.

 

[tmfabian]

The d-76 is almost certainly still fine. Those dry chemicals keep for a long long time.

Hi Roger, this is how I test my fixer and determine fixing time:

Use a short peice of exposed film like you suggest, fill 1/2 of the bottle cap of the fixer with fixer and immerse the middle of the short film piece in it. Agitate occaisionally and keep track of the clearing time. With my Kodak fixer last time, this took 2 1/2 minutes so I fixed the real film for 6 minutes.

Good test, it's what I use as well

 

[Roger Hicks]

Hi Roger, this is how I test my fixer and determine fixing time:

Use a short peice of exposed film like you suggest, fill 1/2 of the bottle cap of the fixer with fixer and immerse the middle of the short film piece in it. Agitate occaisionally and keep track of the clearing time. With my Kodak fixer last time, this took 2 1/2 minutes so I fixed the real film for 6 minutes.

Dear Frank,

The 'spot' test (one drop 10-40 sec beforehand) makes it even easier to see when it's cleared. Try it!

And of course, sorry: the 30 sec. figure referred to film-strength rapid fix. Of course it could be much longer with weaker, non-rapid fix.

Cheers,

R.

 

[blw]

Thanks for all the responses guys! It's especially nice to hear from you Roger since my darkroom kit came w/ your book Darkroom Basics and Beyond.

Luckily, I do have some more dry fixer in case the other stuff doesn't cut it; but I'm certainly hoping the older fixer will be fine. Regardless, I'll do the drop test first.

Perhaps I'll "guinea pig" the C41 with the xTol just to see what happens. It's been so long since I shot that roll that I haven't a clue what might be on it. Actually that's probably the case with all the films!

I'm currently trying to clear all my cameras of film and now I've gotten down to the ETRSi with both magazines loaded- one with E6 and the other w/ TMAX. Perhaps I'll have some 120 film to soup next week too...

Please keep suggestions coming though. I don't leave until Monday and the laptop will be with me anyway.

Thanks again.

 

[Roger Hicks]

It's especially nice to hear from you Roger since my darkroom kit came w/ your book Darkroom Basics and Beyond.

Dear Barry,

Thanks for the kind words, but you know the etymology of 'expert'. It comes from 'ex' meaning 'a has-been' and 'spurt' meaning 'a drip under pressure'.

I'd have the C41 processed by a minilab, though. Why not? It won't cost a fortune and you'll get MUCH better results.

Cheers,

R.