The image on the left is shot on Ilford Delta 100 with the Mamiya RZ67 and developed with a 4 year old developer. The image on the right was shot moments apart, on the same camera and film stock, with the only difference being it was processed with a freshly opened bottle of the same developer. Can you spot any differences?
Fresh vs expired
I like this kind of tests. If you don’t test you rely on anecdotal quotes from others. There is always that guy who has a bottle of rodinal from the 80s, still working like new. And there’s also this guy, who doesn’t trust anything and is afraid of compromising the negatives. It’s oxidised! Doesn’t worth it, developer is cheap, just buy a new one.
As with all things in life, truth usually lies in the middle. And if you can test it yourself, then I would urge you to do so and come to your own conclusions. I’ve read all kinds of stories but thought the best way was to decide for myself. There is always a good enough reason to do some testing anyways, wether you have a new lens or a new camera, or just testing a film stock.
Setting Things Up
I set up a pretty straightforward still life shoot. This helped me to maintain the same lighting conditions across all the duplicate images. Making it easy to shoot as close to identical frames as possible. I used a Mamiya RZ67 with the 90mm f/3.5 lens and two film backs, both loaded with Ilford Delta 100. I lit the scene with a single 500w Profoto strobe light with a reflector and a grid attached. The light was firing through a large sheet of diffusion and on the opposite side I used a white card on most shots to fill in some of the shadows. The backdrop was a piece of white marble.
Developing
After the shoot I developed both rolls one after the other using the same recipe with the only difference being that one roll was developed in my 4 year old Ilfotec HC (opened May 2021) and the other roll developed in a freshly opened, recently purchased Ilfotec HC. Processed manually in Paterson tanks for 6 minutes in dilution 1+31 at 20℃.
SCANNING
After drying I scanned both rolls in my home setup with the 6D and 100mm macro lens. The negative conversion was handled by Negative Lab Pro with “Cinematic Flat” as the profile and all settings left to zero. I then applied a moderate amount of sharpening in photoshop which was equal across all images.
FIRST OBSERVATIONS
After drying the negatives and having a first look at them with a naked eye, they seemed roughly the same, though with some careful observation you could see that one is lacking some contrast compared to the other. Nothing much but definitely noticeable.
THE SCANS & BREAKDOWN
The scans confirmed largely what the naked eye saw, both in the form of negatives and when converted. One looks like it has slightly deeper blacks and a hair brighter highlights, though the latter is harder to discern. The grain size and overall look though is the same in both rolls. Now the question is, which one has the lower contrast? To my initial surprise the roll that looks a tiny bit flatter is the one developed with the fresh chemistry.
As you might be following my thinking right now, this seems like a rather odd outcome. You would expect either the old developer to perform equally or to have lost its’ strength over the years, with oxidation into play, leading to underdeveloped negatives or barely developed at all. Now if it was the other way around and the less contrasty negative was the expired one, I would probably conclude that the old developer has started to lose its’ strength. Not by much but visible non the less. Luckily for me this didn’t happen to the expired developer otherwise I would have been fooled. You see If the developer had lost its strength it would lead to an underdeveloped image. It would either need more time to develop it fully or it wouldn’t be able to develop it at all. Since this test was done manually, it is expected that a slightly weaker or vigorous agitation can lead to a different level of contrast. Same goes for the dilution of the developer and the measurements. I am using a syringe to measure the developer, but these syrupy liquids like Ilfotec HC or Rodinal require very small amounts of the concentrate. Thus even the slightest variation can produce a measurable difference. If you have to measure 100ml of something, and you are off my 1ml it might not be a big of a deal. But when measuring say 18ml, then 1ml off will cause a visible difference to the developed negative. In other words the results show the human error coming into play. Of course we are talking about nearly negligible amounts of difference, if this was a real world scenario it wouldn’t matter which image I was left with at the end as both have all the information needed to either print in the darkroom or edit digitally as you please.
More EXAMPLES & CLOSEUPS
Tips & Best Practises on Preserving And testing your chemistry
Now with the test out of the way and having established that my 4 year old developer is in tip top shape let’s have a look at a few things that we can all pay attention to in order to preserve our chemicals for as long as possible, along with ways to test them and assess their condition.
1- Oxidation
Oxygen is your chemistry’s enemy. And so is light. After opening your fresh bottle try to decant it to either one of these opaque squeeze bottles that allow you to compress them before putting the lid on or use a few of these amber glass bottles, filling them to the top. That way you will keep all the air out ensuring that your developer will not oxidise as quickly. The more room there is at the top of your bottle, the faster your chemical will oxidise.
2- StorageKeep your bottles in a dark and cool environment. It doesn’t need to be in the fridge, room temperature is fine but aim for something between 10-20 degrees celsius (50-68°F) as most manufacturers recommend. Don’t stress if your room reaches 22 or 25 but if it’s consistently hotter then I would suggest you try to find a part of your house that doesn’t get that hot or sunny.
3- Read The Data SheetAlways read the manufacturers data sheet. Not every chemical is the same. So take your time to read the manufacturer’s guidance. Generally speaking, thick syrupy developers will hold for much longer. They are very concentrated thus more robust and less prone to oxidation. You will always find that one guy in the forums who is still using that bottle of Rodinal he bought 20 years ago. On the other hand, powder developers, once mixed have a much shorter shelf life. They will not last you for years. Though the tips that you will find below apply equally to them if you want to preserve them for as long as possible.
4- Test Your ChemistryDon’t be afraid to test your chemistry and don’t just chuck it out for a new one just in case. Wether from an economy or environmental perspective there is no need to just assume it has gone bad. Testing is easy and will require just a bit of your time.
Testing your developer
An easy way to test your developer would be to cut a small piece of film in the dark and proceed to developed it as normal. The part of the leader should develop as pitch black since it is exposed to light. The rest of the film should be completely clear apart from the markings. The markings that you see at the top and bottom of the sprockets of your film are pre-exposed at the factory and they should develop as deep black if the film is fresh. Don’t use expired films to test your developer as the markings might look faded or have completely disappeared as the latent image doesn’t last forever on the negatives. Of course you can also shoot a test roll or just a few frames and cut them in the dark if you want an even better example.
Testing your fixer
If you are looking to test your fixer then that’s pretty easy to do. Cut the leader from a fresh film, I’m using HP5 in this example, put it in a small beaker and pour in some of your working solution. You should see the film turning clear in the first couple of minutes. Thus indicating, your fixer is still fine.
5- Don’t Risk Important Work
If you are processing any paid work or anything that is very important to you then always make sure your chemistry is flawless and if it’s not then get some fresh chemicals. The last thing you want to do is mess up a job or an important personal project. Always read the manual and then research some more. These are just some tips, don’t take them as gospel.
CLOSING Thoughts
Last time I developed film in this developer was nearly a year ago and the results were great with all the rolls I processed. I was kind of expecting it to perform well, though if you don’t test you cannot know for sure. Four years is quite a stretch but it seems that these thick syrups can last for a long time, especially if stored properly. I don’t shoot a lot of black white but I still like to play around with different developers and various film stocks, making it easy to have left overs of chemistry. That can also be good though sometimes, as I always have stuff in hand when I want to develop a test roll.
I will end this post by encouraging you to test things for yourself. We live in a day and age where everyone is looking for a quick answer which oftentimes leads to misconceptions and trusting statements that sometimes are baseless. Of course that is not always the case, but testing your own equipment with your own methods will help you get a better understanding on things instead of relying to what someone else says which might not hold true to your situation.
Resources
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Darkroom Equipment & Tools Mentioned
Collapsible “Accordion” Style Plastic Bottles - https://amzn.to/4cUbGOW
Amber Glass Bottles - https://amzn.to/3YPtPHH
Glass Beaker - https://amzn.to/4iwHJpi
Ilfotec HC - https://amzn.to/3EoRckI
Ilford Rapid Fixer - https://amzn.to/42GmAo9