Long life opened liquid paper developer

[tonyowen]

I'm after suggestions for a paper developer that has a long shelf life after the liquid concentrate has been opened
I use very little developer 270ml in a Jobo tank [for up to six 4x5 (paper) negatives] and do not develop many over a longish time. Consequently my developer seems to become useless long before I've used it up.
I changed from 1L bottle to 500ml bottles, but wonder if I need to go smaller though the cost per ml increases as the volume decreases.

Regards
Tony

[Tin Can]

Your technique in a Jobo is a limitation

I use only Ilford PQ from gallon concentrate bottles in trays

Which is development by inspection, not time

I buy PQ by the gallon, mix as directed a diluted gallon one at a time, stored in brown glass gallon bottle and pour off the top, never shaken of stirred, Mr Bond

I often use smaller trays with much less than a gallon of mix and may develop less than than capacity, so I pour all but the dregs back in the bottle

When development obviously slows I recycle all the old mix

I do something similar with TF5 fixer in 2 gallon floating lid tanks

I check fixer with test strips, 2 ways, bits of X-Ray film and a little bottle of something out of production

Lastly I also use DIY Citric acid stop on PAPER

[koraks]

Decant into smaller glass bottles, Bob's your uncle!

[stefn]

If you're not married to tank processing, have you considered buying raw chemicals & just mixing up D76 as needed. Works well as a one-shot paper developer (by inspection in a darkened bathroom).

Alternatively, go the marbles/protectcan route in glass bottles for any remaining concentrate of your choice.

[John Layton]

Moersch 4812 paper developer is great stuff - amazing shelf life...both of the concentrate after opened and of working dilutions, long open tray life also (even in very large trays), high capacity, amazing D-Max, neutral to slightly warmish tonalities (depending on paper) and as a true bonus - while it lives long...it dies fast, allowing for great print to print consistency until it quickly (and quite visibly) goes down. A bit pricy initially, but don't be deterred by this, as its large capacity and long keeping qualities equate with extreme cost-effectiveness.

[PRJ]

No reason to do anything differently or change developers. You just need to add something to the bottle to prevent oxidation. I use Butane which is "flammable" of course. You could use the stuff they sell for paint or wine. The Butane works fine for me and you can get it at the drug store for refilling lighters. Cheap too. Just don't smoke around it, duh. You only need the smallest amount.

Hope that helps you.

[Dugan]

I use the smallest bottles of Ilford Multigrade developer. I shoot Dust-Off in the bottle, and store it in the fridge. Seems to work ok for me.

[abruzzi]

deleted - misread the original question

[MartinP]

If you have a litre or 1/2 litre bottle of concentrate that isn't being used up quickly, simply open it to begin with then top up a 1/2 litre bottle (if you start from 1 litre) to the brim, then a 250ml bottle, leaving enough to use in the short term in another 250ml bottle which will be the one you use first. The smaller bottles will, of course, be reusable and you can get them from any online photographic place (maybe even a pharmacy). Note that plain polythene bottles for drinks etc. will eventually leak air through the walls, glass is good or PET. As to specific products, I can also recommend the Moersch developer which performs for a number of printing sessions if bottled up afterwards. Also, if you can use trays instead of the Jobo tanks it will make things much simpler.

[mike rosenlof]

https://www.photrio.com/forum/thread...eloper.168833/

here's a thread over on photrio, suggesting HC-110 and some sodium carbonate to raise the pH. Haven't tried it, but it's been done...