I recently bought out a darkroom at an estate sale and there are quite a few boxes of Microphen and ID-11. These appear to be pretty old but are still sealed. Can anyone tell me if the raw mixes have any kind of shelf life? I hate to waste this developer if it is still good, conversly I would hate to ruin that one sheet of film with the Pulitzer winning picture on it .

Thanks, -harry

-- Harry Pluta (hspluta@msn.com), January 03, 2000

Answers

If I am not mistaken, both of these products are phenidone-based, and phenidone generally has good keeping properties. But the only way to know for sure is by empirical testing.

-- (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), January 04, 2000.

The smaller plastic bag(s) of powder in these kits contains the developing agents. The powder should be nearly pure white. If it's yellow or brownish, then it has started to oxidise, the deeper brown the colour the more it has "gone off". A pale yellow is probably still OK to use. You might have to stretch the developing time a bit.

The chemicals in the larger bags shouldn't deteriorate to any great extent. The worst that can happen to these is that they lump together, and don't dissolve as readily as they should.

Make a batch up, and if the solution shows any colour at all, then don't risk it for anything precious.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), January 26, 2000.