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> Cloudy D-76, old package |
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#1
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Cloudy D-76, old package
Something odd occurred yesterday after I mixed up a gallon batch of D-76 from an old package. The powder looked nice and white, no oxidation evident; it mixed up fine, clear and with no discolouration; several hours later I did a clip test with some TMY-2 and it turned black within about 5 minutes....so far so good. I then proceeded to develop 2 rolls of the TMY and they seemed to come out OK - decent contrast, good grain and sharpness under the loupe.
Note that this was one-shot, at 1+1, developer discarded after use. But several hours later I noticed all the bottles of the remaining stock solution had become cloudy-white. They were all full to the brim with no air space. Colour was whitish, no brown tint evident. By this morning the solutions had cleared and there is now very fine white sediment on the bottom of the bottles. So what's going on here? I've never noticed this from any other developer. Mind you, I haven't used many old packages of anything - maybe some ID-11 and Microdol-X, both of which were fine. This D-76 package was one of the old Kodak foil-backed paper pouches. I checked the package prior to opening, and there were no tell-tale pinholes (brown stains on the outside of the pouch). What is the fine white particulate? And does it affect the development at all? Some more background -- I always use tap water to mix my chems; water is soft, and general water quality is very good. Mixing temp. was exactly as Kodak called for: 52C. Powder was added slowly and gently stirred to dissolve. Any insight would be much appreciated. Thanks!
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Regards, Svend Last edited by Svend; 3rd May 2019 at 03:03 PM. |
#2
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I've had this happen with home-brewed D76/ID11 from the raw chemicals. I suspect it's related to the hardness, or otherwise, of your local water supply. The good news is that mine worked fine despite being cloudy. Might be worth testing it with something less important though to be on the safe side.
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#3
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Hi Rob,
We have quite soft water here, so I don't suspect it's a hardness thing. And I have mixed many batches of D-76 from raw chems and store-bought packages, but I've never seen this before. Very puzzling. BTW, as mentioned, I did do a clip test before I committed the TMY rolls, just to make sure it was still active, and all seemed fine. It turned black in about 5 minutes. I will carry on doing clip tests with every future roll I put into this batch. I wonder if it has something to do with the foil pouch? Some kind of metal salt that has formed over the years of just sitting there? FYI, I also did a web search for this before posting here, but came up blank.
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Regards, Svend |
#4
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Does the cloudiness disappear if you shake the bottle.
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Mitch http://photomi7ch.blogspot.com/ If you eliminate the impossible whatever remains no matter how improbable must be the truth. |
#5
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Hi Mitch,
No it doesn't. Quite the opposite in fact. There is now a very fine milky-white sediment on the bottom of the bottles, which gets re-suspended once the bottle is shaken. I just tried shaking one for about 30 secs, and it did not clear - still cloudy; all that did was disturb the sediment. I expect that the stuff will settle out again overnight. BTW, all bottles (those undisturbed) are still nice and clear - no brown oxidation evident. Do you have a theory? I'm really quite curious about this. I'll be shooting a few more films this weekend and will certainly do a clip test before I develop the rolls. I'll make sure to decant the developer very slowly so as to leave the sediment behind. Hopefully it will still be active.
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Regards, Svend |
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