Ilford Developer (powder form) - storage?

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Alastair
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Hey all,

I've got my Ilford Microphen developer, which is in powder form and a form I've not had any experience of. This will apparently make 1 litre of developer. I'm not developing film that regularly (at the moment) so I've got a few questions about storing the developer.

Should I:

a. Mix a litre of developer and then store it

or

b. Mix what I need from the powder and keep the rest separate?

If I'm mixing the entire lot for my 1 litre of developer, can I store it in something like an empty 1L orange squash bottle or should I get something else? And how long can I store it for before it goes off?

Cheers!

Welly
 
You will find it hard to mix less than 1l as it would need you measuring accurately the correct ratios for the 2 different sachets.

Stock solution will last 6 months in a full container and 1 month in half full container. From the Ilford Website

PERCEPTOL, ID-11 and MICROPHEN stock
solutions should last for up to:-
6 months in full capped containers
1 month in a half full tightly capped container.
4 months in a deep tank with a floating lid.
1 month in a deep tank without a floating lid.
PERCEPTOL, ID-11 and MICROPHEN diluted 1+1
or 1+3 should not be kept for more than 24 hours.

See PDF here

You could use a litre bottle. You might want to think about something a bit smaller - maybe a 1pint milk carton because I guess you will mix up the solution, use at least 300mm and need to store the other 700mm? No point making up the solution until you are ready to develop one roll at least...
 
For me, it was cheaper off ebay :) I just wanted a small amount to ensure I'm going to spend time developing at home as opposed to splashing out on a big 5l bottle of the stuff. Which I probably will do at some point as I'm quite enjoying the home developing lark. Aside from that, I couldn't tell you :)
 
According some of the more experienced film guys on here. ID11 in particular is a great all round dev. It's a little more hassle to make up it's miles cheaper than the liquid ones (Ilford at least).
 
Rodinal or HC-110 for VFM! 1tr of HC-110 is diluted 1+31 so makes 31 litres of dev!

I don't think there is any particular plus of powder over liquid or vice versa.

I guess Liquid devs tend to keep longer and you generally use them as one shot so it's easier to maintain some sort of continuity and good if you don't dev many films.

ID11 and such get very expensive if you use them as a 1 shot dev and very tricky to work out processing times if you use them at stock and re-use them.
 
With Ilford powder chemicals you get Powder A and Powder B in separate sachets.

Add powder A to 3/4 amount of water @ 40 deg C and stir to dissolve. Then add Powder B, stir to dissolve then top up to total amount (i.e. 1 or 5 litres).

Stop and Fix are liquid only. You will need a measuring cylinder to dilute to appropriate dilution. Stop and Fix can be re-used.
 
Generally, you'll need about 500ml of diluted developer liquid to process film in the smallest of containers (a 2 x 35mm/1 x 120 film Jobo or Paterson tank).

This means you'll take 125ml of concentrated stock developer and add 375ml of water to it for a diluted ratio of 1+3. This therefore means that your 1-litre of concentrated developer will last for 8 of the small size tanks or 16 rolls of 35mm film if you're developing 2 rolls at a time (more economical). If you're developing say 4 rolls in a 24-hour period, you can re-use the developer for one time only, so theoretically you could develop 32 rolls of film from 1-litre of stock developer.

With fixer I tend to follow the above and the dilution ratios are generally the same. Stop I will re-use once only as well, but will store it for more than 24-hours as it doesn't really loose potency that much in my experience.

Hope this helps
 
It would be very difficult to mix dev as required from powder unless you have some chemists scales!

Stop lasts for ages and afaik the ilford one changes colour to purple ish when it's knackered. For fixer, if you're using the ilford one, the info is on their site as to how many films it will fix before exhaustion. A good test, and you can do this with the lights on, is to drop a piece of exposed film into the fix and see how long it takes to clear. If it's less than your normal fix time you're good to go!
 
Stop lasts for ages and afaik the ilford one changes colour to purple ish when it's knackered. For fixer, if you're using the ilford one, the info is on their site as to how many films it will fix before exhaustion.

Thanks for that Gandhi - I didn't know you could re-use fixer and stop several times. I was re-using just once to be on the safe side. :thinking:
 
so am i right in thinking to mix 500ml or chemical for developing a roll of film?
My paterson super system 4 dev tank came today and i dont know how much chemical to mix

With a Paterson system 4 it is 290ml per 35mm film or 500 for a 120.

I use 300 or 600ml depending as this is the easiest to mix up.
 
excelent, cant wait for my dark bag to come so i can finally start developing :D

There really is something about checking the negative after the fix and seeing some images. Don't forget to post your results!
 
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