Re: [Leica] XTOL Suddenly Dying

[Mark Rabiner <mrabiner@concentric.net>]

"Glen M. Robinson" wrote:
> 
>      I had an experience with Kodak XTOL film developer.  Last weekend I
> developed two rolls of Tri-X film in XTOL that had been mixed up about four
> or five months ago and stored under freon gas to minimize oxidation.  The
> film came out totally blank.  I retook the photographs and developed the
> film in a fresh batch of XTOL and obtained normal negatives.  I had
> successfully developed film from this bad batch of developer only three
> weeks before.   The bad developer had turned in the meantime from colorless
> to a slight yellow, but the small color change was not enough to alarm me.
> 
>      I used D76 and ID-11 for over 25 years before changing to XTOL a year
> ago.  These old-fashioned developers never would just suddenly die.  I have
> on an emergency basis developed film in D76 that had turned to an intense
> purple color and obtained usable negatives. In their directions, Kodak says
> that partially used XTOL expires in two months; apparently they mean it.
> Have any of you LUGers had this experience with XTOL?
> 
> Glen Robinson
> 
> XTOL Suddenly Dying

I bought a packet of XTOL a month ago but haven't opened it out of fear
of the unknown. I'm catching up on some developing to put it mildly and
I didn't feel like it was the time to experiment.
After I get caught up I'm going to make a go of it.
A friend recommended it to me, showed me some prints and in this group
and elsewhere on the internet there is a swarm of x rodinal users and
other specialized interests who are switching to this new poison.
(although it is the least poisonous developer that could ever exist).
My searches on newsgroups turned up dozens of blank to almost blank
reports such as yourself.
 Enough to give one pause....The stuff has some quirky issues.
On the Kodak site you can download huge readme's on it (they're saving
paper) and they address shelf life but most particularly the minimum
about of develop you can use in a tank and per roll. Its starting to
sound like 1:3 is not a good idea and using it fresh and straight might
be the way to go. That's my input.
Mark Rabiner