Roolei Digibase C41 - old chemistry stil useable?
 

ive got a pack of half used chemistry thats been opened for around a year - do you reckon its still useable or should i not bother? ive been shooting mostly black and white for ages but ill been doing some colour later on this afternoon.

Ideally you need an answer from someone who has done exactly what you are thinking of doing. Short of that, it depends on how the chemistry has been stored. Crucially was the developer covered with the likes of Protectan? From what I gather from reading of others' experience the fix and bleach should be OK but with opened six months old developer I have no idea.

The safe way is to buy more developer. I am pretty sure that Matt at Ag sells the developer separately.

If it were me I might try a clip test with a few frames to see, provided that you can afford to lose those frames.

I hope that whatever you do turns out OK

Mike

Stale C41
 

Mixed C41 developer will oxidise at a rate defined by the storage conditions, which could make it either usable or worthless. Its colour is a good indicator - the paler the better. The CD4 component, unmixed, is preserved in sulphurous acid and lasts well. The other components do not age significantly. The Ferric EDTA bleach concentrate may crystallise but may redissolve on gentle warming, but then filter it to be safe. The fix and stabiliser do not deteriorate.

I'm currently using the same kit which is about 20 months old.
As advised already the developer is the key - light/clear brown = OK - dark brown = bin it.

John

If the developer part 'A' has not deteriorated from a pale yellow colour to a brown of blackish colour then it will be OK to use. The other two 'B' and 'C' parts don't go off. Don't forget to add the starter though

Well it looks as if Ag Photographic no longer sells the Rollei C41 kit and has switched to Tetenal. Unfortunately no reasons given but if you need to replace any of the Digibase kit then it looks as if Firstcall still stocks it and is full of praise for it. In fact Firstcall may be the only U.K. stockist but of course it can be obtained from Maco as is to be expected given its origins

I have yet to try my kit bought from Ag a few years ago. It might be simple economics that drove Matt at Ag to stop selling it i.e. he can now get Tetenal at a better price but it would be nice to know why he no longer stocks it.

It is one of the few, maybe only kit, that can be bought separately

Mike

In fact it's the part C that goes off.

I recently bought a few replacement 100 ml bottles of part C directly from the company that bottles it and stored them in fridge this time. It remains to be seen if this will extend their life.

-- Andres