Arista B&W Developer Mishap

Hello -

 

I have been processing my B&W for close to 17 years and this is a first.

 

I have two Arista sealed 12oz bottles I had purchased on April 12th, 2016. They have been stored in between 62-68F all the time. I used this in the recommended 1:9 mix from the bottle instructions. The late afternoon light was perfect this Sunday and I shot a roll of apx 100.

 

After processing in this combo for 7mins at 68F all I got was a blank negative strip :((. Correction, after very carefully looking, I can see a couple of frames with very faint tree top images, and the sun in one direct sun exposure.

 

It was very annoying :(, probably my own doing? My go-to developer is Rodinal in 1:25, and the last bottle lasted me a good 5-6 years! Have I been spoiled by Rodinal or do you think this Arista Developer is rubbish? 2 Years and sealed, should account for some longevity, no? What do you think?

First of all, just to rule out a camera malfunction, how do the edge markings looks?

 

With that said, this is one of those reasons why I'm often leery of "house brand" B&W developers unless I know that they're intended to replicate. When it comes to concentrates, we know that Rodinal basically lasts forever and HC-110 just a few years shy of that.

 

If you bought the developer in April 2016, it's at least approaching 3 years old if not longer than that(who knows how long they had it in stock). One would hope that a sealed bottle would be good for that long, but without knowing the specific chemistry it's hard to say. The MSDS(Freestyle should fix that, as MSDSs are now a thing of the past) lists hydroquinone, so presumably it's a Metol-Hydroquinone type developer. I don't THINK it's intended to replicate HC-110, as it lacks a lot of the things that are listed in the HC-110 MSDS(again, Kodak needs to fix/update that to comply with GHS standards) that presumably make HC-110 so "syrupy."

 

In any case, it MIGHT be worth a call to Freestyle to see what they say about the shelf life of it...and one would hope that if it is indeed shorter than 3 years, they would print an expiration date on the bottle.

Is this original APX100 or the current product (rebadged Kentmere 100)? I give Kentmere 100 15 minutes in Rodinal 1+50.

It's a D76 clone. Kodak (mixed) gives it 6 months to a year. Merry christmas if this is the first time you have had developer die in 17 years. Rodinal lasts a very long time and is not the norm.

@ben, the camera is fine, all checks out. The edges have no manufacturing info so i am thinking the developer is shot.

 

@John Farrell, this is the original APX 100, with a 2010 exp date, frozen kept, and still very much alive. Shoot it all the time now.

 

@peter, that makes sense but I will still give freestyle a ring and see what they say.

 

I have some microdol-x sealed still in powder form, from 10 years ago, i wonder how that will do, don’t think i want to risk a whole roll but may try a control strip of 3 random frames...

If it were me, I'd get new developer and forget about anything like that ancient Microdol-X. Some developers fail suddenly and without warning. If it is for prints at least you find out quickly and you can always make another print, but film that is ruined is gone and the possible images are gone as well.

Just do a clip test with an undeveloped leader in the light. Just put a little developer in a glass and drop a small bit of undeveloped film. It should turn black in a couple minutes.

 

This is how i tested my xtol, when I still used it.