Don't forget you can make very interesting "Lumen" prints on that outdated
paper. See the FB Alt Photo list for lovely examples...
From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Laurence Cuffe ;(Redacted
sender "cuffe" for DMARC)
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2021 12:17 PM
To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: New Dektol, dark brown
I’ve, since lockdown, been in my darkroom a lot more, and as getting supplies
is no longer as simple as a trip into town, I’ve been working with whatever
chemicals I have, in whatever condition they are in. My Glycin, bought from
Photographers formulary in 2007, although brown, does not seem to have lost its
activity. I made up AGFA8 as its a Glycin only recipe, to test this, as it is
an ingredient in some of the other developers I’ve been interested in. The Agfa
8, worked fine.
My Dektol, from the same period, was a very depressing brown, but again when I
threw paper into it, it worked fine. That was a surprise. I’ve also tried
Dassonville D1, and POTA, the last being a dismal Failure: well maybe not a
failure, its just when it was described as an extreme low contrast developer,
capable of recording 23 stops of image on film, I did not expect my negatives
to come out as featureless uniform pale grey. The Dassonville seems to be
keeping well despite less than perfect storage conditions.
My situation is that I stepped away from the darkroom for a few years, because
a leak in the roof which I was unaware of, which traveled behind a wall to let
in a significant mould infection, and the loss of a depressingly large amount
of my negatives. Its taken a lot of cleaning up, and a new roof. I still
occasionally leave a UV light fluorescent tube on overnight, just to clobber
any dormant spores.
I’m now back in, but working my way through old chemical stock, old tins of
undeveloped negatives, and significant amounts of paper which is so out of date
that it has become a creative collaborator in its own right, altering both tone
and image as it see’s fit.
The point of this is just to say that your chemistry may still be usable, even
of it looks off. If I was doing commercial work, or had high stakes negatives,
clearly, I would not take this risk.
Best regards
Laurence Cuffe
On 27 Mar 2021, at 12:23, ej@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
You might try the formula for Ansco 130. It was my standard developer for my
production from early 90s until the end of commercial printing in around 2014.
Similar to dektol.
Eric
From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of Janet Gable Cull
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2021 9:28 PM
To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: New Dektol, dark brown
I bought it from Unique Photo, and called them this morning. Got a call back
this afternoon and was told it's perfectly fine (though not with me). He said
it performs normally but honestly, it's thick and very dark chocolatey. Seems I
saw here recently that Ilford has a developer that's like Dektol. I think I'll
search that.
They may say it's the dark Dektol is just the same but I like to be able to see
what's coming up on the print. I'm sending back the rest of the order.
On Fri, Mar 26, 2021 at 6:09 PM Ken Hough <k4sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Richard. This brown Dektol was first mentioned over a year ago. Nation wide
printers saw it. It’s not a local phenomena. I switched to LPD long ago but
needed some paper developer this fall. I got new dektol. Brown. Not smelly.
I’ve been doing this long enough to know (50 years) and it didn’t seem to have
that odor
From:
Ken Hough Retired from
Ken Hough Photographic Repair
I Specialized in all Deardorff products
https://web.archive.org/web/20190330122042/http://deardorffcameras.0catch.com/ ;
<https://web.archive.org/web/20190330122042/http:/deardorffcameras.0catch.com/>
219-406-6849
On Mar 26, 2021, at 4:10 PM, `Richard Knoppow <dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dektol should be white. The brown is from oxididation due to a leak in the
container. It may also have a fishy odor. I have encountered bad Dektol in very
old bag containers. Have it replaced. Developers should never be more than very
slight tan in color.
On 3/26/2021 6:09 AM, Janet Gable Cull wrote:
I just received an order of chemicals, opened a bag of deck tile to mix for
printing this morning and it is dark brown. I've never seen it look like this,
chocolatey. Surely there's not been a change and it's supposed to look like
this. What in the world? Disappointing when I'm ready to go.Have any of you
found it bad right out of the package? Packaging says expiration date is 2023.
Janet Gable Cull
Sent from my iPhone
--
Richard Knoppow
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
WB6KBL
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