Just FWIW, a blast from the past.

From back in the day when Ilford used more-or-less the same corporate colour scheme as "Big Yellow".

 

I've never used ID-48 before. So when or if I get around to making it up, it'll be something of a double experiment. Will that old ID-48 still work? And, if so, will it work as it was supposed to?

That would be mildly interesting to know, but would you really bother?

 

Which reminds me; I got hold of a very old unopened 100ml glass bottle of Rodinal probably the 1930's. Beautiful bakelite screw top - it had a clear acetate seal around the top which crumpled into pieces when I touched it (that is why i know it is unopened). Inside, the liquid looks 95% crystallised and I doubt it can be extracted unless the I break the bottle.

Inside, the liquid looks 95% crystallised and I doubt it can be extracted unless the I break the bottle.

Pretty much expected. Rodinal is mainly a saturated solution of potassium sulphite (more soluble than common sodium sulphite) and any loss of water through evaporation, or subjecting it to freezing temperatures, will quickly crystallise the dissolved salts.

 

The good news is that the developing agent in Rodinal is already in an oxidised state. So exposing it to air does very little harm, and I suspect that the addition of a small volume of hot water to your bottle of crystals will restore your Rodinal to its state of being a dark brown liquid.

 

Like the cockroach, Rodinal is quite hard to kill! But OTOH it ain't never gonna turn into a fine-grain producing butterfly.

Edited August 25, 2021 by rodeo_joe|1

I think this is still good, someday I'll find out, I guess. The last purchase I made when the local camera store went out of business.

expired 2017

 

For FWIW, I just "love" blasts from the past.

Edited August 25, 2021 by JDMvW

Dark brown (50+ years ,in my case) Rodinal works just fine. As does the Parodinal I mixed some years ago. And it's dark brown too.