Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I have never had any problem like that, but a number of people have been reporting similar problems in the rec.photo.darkroom newsgroup. I think there are a few current contributions, otherwise use a search engine to find older ones. (BTW one person who reported the problem came back and said he had been the victim of a practical joke in his university darkroom: somebody had switched the labels on the developer and fixer bottles!) Did you use one litre or five litre packs? Kodak has confirmed problems with some one litre packs. (I think one of the bags had not been sealed air-tight and as a result the mixed developer did not keep well. Such packs are recognizable: the contents of one bag is caked.) I think the problem has been solved now, but there may still be old packs out there... I use five litre packs and they last about six months for me. I have used four packs in the last two years without any problem. I store in brown glass bottles that are filled to the brim. (I would not expect any Leica owner to use plastic bottles!) I have three (nominal) one litre bottles with a 1225 cc capacity, one (nominal) half litre bottle with 625 cc and two (nominal) quarter litre bottles. That makes five litres. I start using the smallest bottles, and when they are empty, I re-fill them from the next larger size, etc. etc. I pour carefully, making sure to create as few air bubbles as possible. I use a 1+1 dilution and never re-use the developer. I use an antioxidizing agent for the half full small bottle. Delta 100 exposed at 200 and devloped in 125 ml Xtol + 125 ml water @ 20°/68° for 14 minutes with agitation 10 secs every minute is in my opinion the best combo in the medium speed range. > 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 - -- christer almqvist eichenstrasse 57, d-20255 hamburg, fon +49-40-407111 fax +49-40-4908440 14 rue de la hauteur, f-50590 regnéville-sur-mer, fon+fax +33-233 45 35 58