Dev chems cost and shelflife spread sheet...

[srichards]

Has anyone made one of these for occasional home devvers vs frequent home devvers for the most common chemicals for both B & W and C41?

It seems like it could be handy to collect together the best value for money chemicals and choices of suppliers.

Also is there a way of testing to see if chemicals are still ok without using them to do a film and finding out later they're toast? Something like a litmus paper perhaps?

 

[norters]

I can only go on my own experiences here bit rodinal and hc-110 last for bloody ages in concentrate. Had a bottle of rodinal for two years that hasn't even gone crusty at all yet. And had a bottle of opened hc-110 for well over a year that I use all the time with no problems.

 

[joxby]

I'll 2nd Rodinal, I have some, its at least 5 years old, it was a pale straw colour when I bought it, although now it wouldn't look out of place poured over a joint of beef, I bet it works just fine.
I don't use Rodinal now I always found it a bit coarse, I want smooooooth for printing so Xtol is my brew.
I used to use ilfosol S till they discontinued it, its a one shot which seemed to last about 12 months if you only develope occaisionally, I liked it because it was fine grain and very pale straw coloured when new, as soon as it started going dark yellow, I knew not to use it.
Ilfosol 3 may have the same characteristics, one shots are great for occasional soupers.

 

[abbandon]

About five years ago Jessops were selling off lots of odds and ends one of the things I brought was a bottle of HC110 that was already reddish in colour...it just ran out this summer and worked perfectly every time it is about the most long lasting developer.

Buy E6 fix in bulk you can use it for everything and it has a much better shelf life than the B&W stuff i.e something like Fuji Hunt Super Unilec 5L

I don't currently do C41 but if I was I would go for a setup using seperate bleach and Fix as the shelf life of Blix especially once mixed is dire.

To get costs down buying in bulk packs is always way cheaper the clearest example of that is the price of the Tetanol 1L and 5L E6 kits.

 

[srichards]

I've just gone for the C41 digibase pouches. Ready mixed. Designed for about 12-14 films. Supposed to last well due to the pouch. Dev, bleach and fix all separate.

 

[Deleted member 21335]

I've just gone for the C41 digibase pouches. Ready mixed. Designed for about 12-14 films. Supposed to last well due to the pouch. Dev, bleach and fix all separate.

Can you let me know how that goes etc please? I would like to try developing C41 and this seems an easy way chemical wise. But I am pretty infrequent. Just a roll every few weeks (looking to change that though).

 

[srichards]

Will do