Since its introduction I’ve been using Photographer’s Formulary Liquidol print developer. Before that I used the sadly departed Zone VI print developer from the time it was introduced. Both were designed to be an improvement over Kodak Dektol, yielding better shadow detail.
This past week I ran out of Liquidol and called B&H to order some more. Sorry, not in stock and when it comes back I have to pick it up in New York. OK, I’ll call Photographer’s Formulary. Small problem … they only have two one pint bottles in stock and won’t have any more for at least three weeks due to supplier issues. Oh, and when they get it the price will be going up … but it won’t be available any longer in the largest and most economical size because … you guessed it … the black plastic containers are no longer available #@$%^$%^!!
So now in a mini panic I call Freestyle Photo and yes they have seven one liter bottles left in stock. Great … I’ll take them all! Unfortunately they won’t arrive until early this week. That’s a problem because I’ve been working on a project with a bit of deadline and have been on a bit of a roll over the past several weeks. My plans were to spend much of this past Friday and the weekend in my darkroom. So what to do? See if anyone within reasonable driving distance has some Dektol or anything like it. After a few calls I hit paydirt. A camera store about thirty minutes from where I live has three recently expired bags. No problem, it’s powder and there shouldn’t be any issues.
Picked it up on Friday morning, ate lunch then went into the darkroom to mix it.
NO, NO, a thousand times NO! The color was that of icky black coffee! The fact that the powder was a milk chocolate brown was probably not a good sign, but I hadn’t used the stuff in almost 40 years so I didn’t give it much thought.
Ran upstairs and went on the Internet to see what I could find out. Turns out this is a well-documented problem that eventually Kodak had to recognize and address. Apparently while frightening to see, the color doesn’t prevent its use. Still …
Well, I can report that I used it over the weekend and although it was a little disconcerting to be developing paper in what looked to be bad coffee, the results were thankfully just fine. One problem … when I woke up on Saturday morning I noticed my finger nails had become somewhat brown. I almost had a Brett Weston Amidol moment! Thankfully I had some gloves and used them for the remainder of the weekend.
My guess is that the Dektol now being made is no longer brown. However, my concern is that Kodak’s chemicals are made in China or at least the ingredients are, so there is the potential for quality control issues.
I’ve been worried about Kodak’s chemicals ever since they changed the formulation of HC-110. It’s no longer the syrupy consistency we all loved to hate, and who knows about its shelf life. Recently I’ve been able to score three bottles of the old stuff which should keep me going for a while. The only other Kodak chemical I use is Rapid Selenium Toner and I’ll probably look to replace that as well.
Now I am worried about Tri-X’s future.
So, what does this all mean? Not sure, but I can say this … when it comes to chemicals we all need to support those companies that continue to make good quality products such as Ilford and Photographer’s Formulary, and/or buy raw ingredients from reputable sources to mix your own. The formulas are out there in books like Steve Anchell’s The Darkroom Cookbook and on the Internet.
In the meantime, I anxiously await the arrival of a large and heavy box from Freestyle!
Stay well,
Michael