oxidized developer..powdered

[frank ferreira]

i haven't used my darkroom for a couple of years. insetting it up to use again i have found two cartons of zone vi paper developer...enough for 16 gals of stock solution. it has turned dark toast color..the dry chems..but is in the original bags. it is at least three years old. called calumet and they say chuck it...50 plus bucks. dry developer powder is no good after three years. i just don't believe them. any experience of yours will be appreciated. i'm just an old amateur so i'm not trying to sell the prints. thanks. frank ferreira

[Kevin Crisp]

In the immortal words of Fred Picker (he said he had a rubber stamp for this): "Try it!"

[Michael S. Briggs]

The only type of container that I trust for long term storage of photo chemicals is glass bottles. Many other materials are too permeable to oxygen. People rave about the metal cans that Kodak used many years ago. Modern practice is lighter and cheaper materials, calculated to work for a time period that the manufacturer believes to be sufficient. Lighter also means cheaper to transport. Some of Kodak's problems with XTOL may be from earlier forms of the packaging.

[Nick_3536]

Paper developer right? Try it. Even if it's off maybe you'll like it better aged-)

[Nick Morris]

Hello Frank, For what its worth, I have found that powdered chemicals that have turned brown will sometimes "work", but its no way to develop (pardon the pun) consistent processing proceedures. I don't know of a way to judge the ability to repeat results in terms of print contrast, etc. It's less of a loss with printing, but it really hurts when a negative doesn't fully develop because of weak developer. Its a question of whether its really worth the time, paper, and other chemicals to experiment for results.