ADOLUX APH09

Rocketman · 2009-03-31T23:45:07+00:00

Hallo zusammen! Ich habe eine Flasche ADOLUX APH09 nun etwa zweieinhalb Jahre etwa halbleer, oder soll ich sagen halbvoll =), im Regal gelagert. Nach jedem...

Rocketman

Hello everyone! I’ve had a bottle of ADOLUX APH09 sitting on the shelf for about two and a half years now; it’s about half empty – or should I say half full? =) – and I’ve always topped it up generously with protective gas after every use. I wanted to use the developer again, but when I picked up the bottle, I heard a noise as if there were a handful of sand inside. It seems that a fair amount of crystals have settled at the bottom. I can’t say exactly how much there is yet. I think I’ll pour the whole lot through a coffee filter. So here’s my question: Should I keep using the developer and pretend nothing’s wrong, or would it be better to bin it and buy a new one? Best regards, Sebastian

mdeutgen

So here’s my question: Should I keep using it as a developer and pretend nothing’s wrong, or would it be better to bin it and buy a new one?

Run it through a filter (a coffee filter will do!) and carry on using it. Have a go at using the search function in other forums; you won’t find anything different written there. Martin

hansschneider

Sebastian, Rodinal (or whatever the product is called) and crystals at the bottom of the bottle go hand in hand. You can read in the DIY guides that your homemade solution can only be considered a success if a few crystals have formed at the bottom. So, as the previous speaker said: keep using it. I never filter anything out, though; after all, the crystals are at the bottom. Best regards, Hans

Rocketman

No, no! :lol: :) :lol: This isn’t from this morning; it was filtered out of the APH09 bottle yesterday evening. Quite a lot of brown gunk. Well, the bottle’s nearly empty anyway. The last development attempt went quite well. The negatives were a bit thin, but that was probably more down to the film having slightly less exposure. I really ought to take a light meter reading. Then the density and grey values will work out fine. Have a lovely day. Sebastian

MirkoBoeddecker

Sebastian, You can actually tell quite easily whether the film was subject to underexposure or underdevelopment by looking at the start of the film with the Leica tab (for 35mm film). If it’s a nice black, it was subject to underexposure – otherwise, it was underdeveloped. With roll films, it’s more difficult – you can only check the frame numbers, but every manufacturer exposes them to different degrees, so this test only works with roll films if you have a reference film. Best regards, Mirko

mdeutgen

Sebastian, I too had a nearly empty bottle of R09 today. Let me backtrack a bit: Last September, I had two one-litre bottles of ADOX APH09 sent to me from Berlin and was immediately struck by what I thought were rather odd plastic bottles. So I decanted one of the one-litre bottles into a one-litre Aponorm bottle. I decanted the second litre into four quarter-litre Aponorm bottles. I’ve now almost finished bottle number two, and this one also has the ‘sediment’ at the bottom that you described. I then decided to top this bottle up with a quarter-litre that hadn’t been opened since decanting, and lo and behold, this bottle has almost no sediment. So I’m seriously wondering whether this sediment is directly linked to the atmospheric oxygen that comes into contact with the contents every time the opened bottles are opened and moved. I definitely think so, although I lack the background knowledge in chemistry to back this up. Perhaps one or two forum members with a background in chemistry might know a bit more that either refutes or supports this theory. Regards, Martin

cfb_de

Hi Martin, You’re right. However, there’s more than enough p-aminophenol in the solution, so the small amount*] that precipitates isn’t really noticeable. Most of the stuff that crystallises out is actually ‘intact’ p-aminophenol, simply because the solution contains it right up to the solubility limit. Open the bottle twice, a bit of evaporation, and it starts to crystallise out. Crystallisation in Rodinal is simply part of the process. Just as Rodinal is simply meant to be brown... Best regards, Franz *]: Don’t panic. When aromatics like this oxidise, the solution turns pitch black even with very few oxidation products.