huehnerhose
Hello!
I’ve just had a rummage through all the chemicals I found at school. The batch for 13 litres of A300 is probably the most useful thing I’ve found ;)
But to the actual question: I have a ‘kit’ from 1973 for black-and-white reversal processing. I’ve got no experience with reversal processing at all – but just out of interest, I’d certainly like to give it a go. Is there any way to “tell” from the chemicals whether they’re still usable? Or are there inherently unstable chemicals in there that simply dissolve over time? The sachets all (except one) still look perfectly fine and everything still feels powdery – so I reckon not much moisture has got in.
The bag containing the primary developer has two or three brown spots, and one of the bags in the stop bath – which is made of a kind of soft plastic – contains some disgusting brown stuff that, judging by the bag alone, looks like ancient latex gloves that have decomposed. As the bags for the stop bath are sealed in an outer bag, I haven’t looked inside them yet.
My question: Do you think this stuff can still be used? Does anyone perhaps even have a use for exactly this kind of stop bath kit?
Regards
Sebastian
P.S. Here’s a quick list of the product names:
A851 Fix for reversal processing
A842 Secondary developer
A829 Primary developer
A833 Reversal bath
A835 Clearing bath
kessler
Hi Sebastian,
I think you can still use that stuff. The so-called ‘reversal bath’ – which is actually the Bleach bath in the process – is probably potassium dichromate and should dissolve with a slightly orange colour; if it does, it’ll still work. The fixing bath is pure sodium sulphite.
Just give it a go – I’m sure it’ll work.
By the way, I’d use a primary development time of about 7–8 minutes for Fomapan transparency film.
Best regards,
Martin
huehnerhose
Hi Martin,
First of all, thanks for your reply and the exposure guide for the Fomapan. As I said, I’ve never done any reversal processing before. But I’ll give it a go soon. I’ve just shot a roll of Fomapan T200 and developed it in D76 – I didn’t really like it straight away. Do you happen to have any exposure times for other films to hand? Or do you know where I could find them?
Many thanks,
Sebastian
