Olld chemicals

[salvatore]

I have recently reactivated my dark room and I would like to perform some analog photography.
I found in my shelter some material, films, papers, developers and fixers propably more than 30 years old, kept under the normal temperature conditions of a basement.
Before throwing everything away, I made some tests to evaluate the conditions of the materials.
I cut a small piece of a Kodalyth film and exposed half of it to ambient light, while protecting the rest.
I developed it by the proper developer and it appears to be ok, absolute black in the exposed part, completely clear (with some pink reflexes) in the protected area.
I am going to test the rest, but I would like to know your experience with old developer, not only with high contrast film like Kodalyth, but also on other orthochromatic film.
In particular, since I would like to use X-ray film, I have to decide if It is convenient to buy new and proper developer and fixer, or try the old ones.
I understand that this is a limiting case, but at least a trend will be useful.
Just a word on storage time of another material. I bought about 20 years ago a kit for the producttion of printed circuit boards, based on a photosensitive material (negative resist) said by the producer to have a storage time of one year. After 20 yeras, some days ago, I used the resist with perfect results.
THis gives me some hope to save at least part of my chemicals.

[mdarnton]

I have used 20 or 30 year old chemicals for years. My current metol is from about 1990 and tan colored. People will tell you anything, depending on their personal comfort zone rather than their actual experience, but results don't lie.

[jp]

Welcome!
I have sold 20 year old techpan developer for big bucks on ebay, so it must work for many people!
Film that remains pink needs either more fixing or more washing. If more washing doesn't clear it, the fixer is at fault.
If the developer makes pleasing results, use it.

[John Kasaian]

john nanian, who posts here, introduced me to Ansco 130 developer and the shelf life of that stuff is darned near immortal! Six year old stock solution still works with gusto.
Ortho films handle age very well---better than 1980's rock musicians anyway.

[Jim Galli]

Years ago I bought a Calumet 8X10 outfit complete with Ries tripod. It had all the receipts from 1964. There was a 250 sheet box of Gaevert Contactone paper that I very nearly threw out. I thought I'll check one sheet. Perfect. It was the Gaevert version of AZO and perhaps even more lovely than the Kodak version. Still using that up. There was also a bottle of Rodinal of the same age that looked like strong coffee. I just finished it up about 3 years ago. OTOH, most of the older bromide papers simply go to pieces in a few years. Powder chems should last pretty much forever. It doesn't take long to test. The normal rule is the slower the material the better it ages. Fast film and paper, not so much.