Re: [Leica] XTOL Suddenly Dying

[kabob@tiac.net (Bob Keene/Karen Shehade)]

>Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 11:05:35 -0600
>From: "Glen M. Robinson" <gmrobinson@imation.com>
>Subject: [Leica] XTOL Suddenly Dying
>
>     I had an experience with Kodak XTOL film developer.  Last weekend I
>developed two rolls of Tri-X film in XTOL that had been mixed up about four
>or five months ago and stored under freon gas to minimize oxidation.  The
>film came out totally blank.  I retook the photographs and developed the
>film in a fresh batch of XTOL and obtained normal negatives.  I had
>successfully developed film from this bad batch of developer only three
>weeks before.   The bad developer had turned in the meantime from colorless
>to a slight yellow, but the small color change was not enough to alarm me.
>
>     I used D76 and ID-11 for over 25 years before changing to XTOL a year
>ago.  These old-fashioned developers never would just suddenly die.  I have
>on an emergency basis developed film in D76 that had turned to an intense
>purple color and obtained usable negatives. In their directions, Kodak says
>that partially used XTOL expires in two months; apparently they mean it.
>Have any of you LUGers had this experience with XTOL?
>
>Glen Robinson
>
>XTOL Suddenly Dying

Glen-

I'm so happy to hear that someone else had this problem! (Well, not
'happy', but you know what I mean)

Abit of background- for about 13 years I made my living as a stand up
comic; photography was an avid hobby.
Went to New England School of Photography 3 years ago and opened my own
business- wedding, portrait and event shooting... 2 1/2 years ago I lucked
out- someone couldn't do a shoot and referred me. The assignment? To shoot
Bill Cosby at the Longwood Cricket Club (some big tennis competition-
sorry, I don't do tennis) I get there meet the "Man" (I've worshipped Cosby
since I was 8 years old! Name another comedian who can do 15 minutes on
child birth, be funny all the way through and be absolutely tasteful!?)
blast a couple rolls of film- and because I had been hired by Longwood, I
was the ONLY photographer allowed back to his trailer. So I go to develop
the film, and use the Xtol I had stored (probably hadn't used it in a few
weeks or so; maybe it had been 2 months...I don't think it was THAT long-I
had gotten spoiled by XP2 and C-41 convenience).
I had shot Ilford HP5+; souped the film.....AND PULLED OUT TWO ROLLS OF
*BLANK* FILM!!!!! I cannot express the feelings I had at that moment- the
only thing I could imagine was that the Xtol had "expired".... so I had
nothing for the client, which was bad; but worse, I had nothing for me!
This was something I had REALLY wanted to have- pictures of (for me) a
legend, a mentor.

This incident taught me the most important lessons of my photography life:
Important jobs get NEW chemistry and Important jobs get developed
seperately (not all my film in one basket!)
So, I haven't used Xtol since- too bad because I really liked it's work.
Especially when pushing HP5+.
I can't remember what Kodak's line on shelf life for this developer is; but
WATCH OUT!!
Anybody else???

Glen, at least you were able to re-shoot; thank god!

Howdy from Boston-

Bob Keene