Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/20

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Subject: [Leica] XTOL Suddenly Dying
From: "Glen M. Robinson" <gmrobinson@imation.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 11:05:35 -0600
 
     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