Pyrocat-HD Sudden Death!

[Alan9940]

I know this has been discussed a bit in other threads, but thought I'd pass on a warning that...YES, Pyrocat-HD can experience sudden death significantly before you expect it and without warning.

I have a 15 month old batch, mixed in glycol, stored in amber glass bottles with a spurt of Protectan after each use, and kept at about 50-55F in the dark. I mix it myself and have done so for more than 10 years. Before that I bought it from PF and had a batch of that go bad in about the same timeframe. No warning. When I mixed A and B together, it turned the appropriate color. I know some of you have had it go bad and others have it last for years. I'm really starting to not trust it due to this Xtol-like sudden death. If I keep using it, I'm going to mix a small batch in distilled water and toss every 6 months or so.

Anyway, just thought I'd pass this along...

[Steven Ruttenberg]

I was thinking same thing, except mix what I need for the developing session and then toss leftovers. It's cheap enough and reshooting some scenes is not possible.

[Willie]

A year and a half - and you are surprised?

Rodinal may last a few decades but nothing else does. Except bad politicians and mean mothers in law.

[Alan9940]

A year and a half - and you are surprised?

Rodinal may last a few decades but nothing else does. Except bad politicians and mean mothers in law.

Well, I've heard tell of folks seeing 2, 3, or more years shelf life. Personally, I've never had it go beyond 1 1/2 years.

[Jim Noel]

My current batch I mixed in 2015. It was still fine yesterday. In the past I have never had "A" go bad,but for some reason, I did have one batch of "B" die suddenly.

[Peter Lewin]

I guess the lesson for those of us who develop more intermittently is to expose a couple of sheets for test developing, before developing anything hard or impossible to replace. I plan on doing this when I return from my California trip before developing the negatives from the trip.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Amen. I even thought of doing 1 sheet at a time just in case. Rather ruin 1 than 4 or 6 or 10 in one shot.

[Andrew Tymon]

I cut a sheet of film into half inch squares and process it at my standard dilution (it helps if you start this with a new batch so you have a control to measure density against) if it turns black it's still good.

[Pere Casals]

Rodinal may last a few decades but nothing else does.

HC-110, for example, also lasts decades.

I guess the lesson for those of us who develop more intermittently is to expose a couple of sheets for test developing, before developing anything hard or impossible to replace. I plan on doing this when I return...

Something easier, a drop test.


Lights open, let fall a drop of developer on a film end each minute, say 5 drops, then wait (say) 5 min, rinse a bit with tap water and throw the film end in the fixer.

You can compare densities under each drop with those in a test made when developer was fresh, so you not only will know if the developer is alive, you will also know if developer strength has changed and what developing time correction you may apply.

[swmcl]

Well my Pyrocat-HD is around 8 maybe 10 years old and is still quite OK... My TF4 is a number of years old too.

I do protect them with a squirt of N2 though ...