Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/08/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Of course you can reuse chemicals! B&W becomes almost expensive if you do not. Any real camera shop should have a testing solution for your fixer (or check it the way Johnny suggested)*. If you have indicator stop bath then reuse as per instructions. Some people just use a plain water rinse as a stop bath. You can also make up stop bath from plain old household white vinegar. There are books at your library that will explain how (websites too?). For XTOL, follow Kodak's recommendations which can be read or downloaded from their website. I dilute my XTOL to 1:3** for one shot use. You only use about a 100 ml per roll so 5 litres can develop 50 rolls if you are careful. ALWAYS DATE YOUR CHEMICALS WITH AN EXPIRY DATE. I am not a bright chap and after five minutes or so I forget when I made the chemicals up so mark it on the bottle. Using some system that removes the air each time you close the bottle is a very good idea and most chemical storage times take that for granted. John Collier *Exhausted fixer has a high silver concentration and is toxic, as Brian pointed out, so dispose of it at your local hazardous waste depot. **There were problems with people not having enough developer in their working solutions so Kodak dropped the 1:3 recommendations from their website. I can send you the old PDF if you want. As long as you are careful about the having 100ml of developer per roll (especially with T-Max films, Tri-X is not so fussy), there are no problems. I remove a reel from my tanks to keep the roll/developer ratio up to snuff. So 7 rolls in a 8 roll tank works well with Tri-X. > From: Nathan Wajsman <wajsman@webshuttle.ch> > > Adam, > > Do not bother reusing. As you write yourself, you work hard at getting the > shot, you have spent money on > the film and your equipment, why jeopardize the results trying to save a few > pennies? Both XTOL, stop > bath and fixer are cheap. Just use and dump. > > Adam Bridge wrote: > >> Okay, I'd like to step through this again. >> >> For development of film now, not paper, what chemistry can I re-use? >> >> I'm using Xtol at 1:1 for most things, 1:0 for Illford 3200 shot at 1600. Can >> I simply pour back the >> developer into the bottle? That sounds.....iffy.....to me. I'll be >> continually weakening the >> solution. >> >> Stop bath has an indicator so it seems like that is safe to re-use. >> >> Fixer? >> >> I appreciate the suggestions everyone has been making - I'm just trying to >> understand the parameters >> better. The idea of working hard to make good negatives and them screwing >> them up because I was >> cheap on chemicals bothers me. But I don't like to throw away money - how >> else can I afford to buy >> another M6? >> >> Thanks everyone. >> >> Adam Bridge > > -- > Nathan Wajsman > Herrliberg (ZH), Switzerland > > e-mail: wajsman@webshuttle.ch > > General photo site: http://belgiangator.tripod.com/ > Belgium photo site: http://members.xoom.com/wajsman/ > Motorcycle site: http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/1704/ > > > > >