FT: Kodak HC110 Developer

[Daniel W.]

Hey folks, trying to get something going for the school. We've got an excess of HC110, given we use half a bottle a year at best and maybe 5-7 years tops left of film (we're the last school in the district doing it and our instructor will be hitting is 30 year mark soon), we're clearly not going to ever go through it all, and it'll just be tossed once we're done.

What we are looking for are things a high school photo program could use, or other parts of the film and darkroom process like paper developer, fixer, or hypo. Plastic tanks or reels for 135 or 120 (the latter preferred), B&W films, are what we are looking for on the analog end.

On the "real" end of photography, we shoot both Canon and Nikon (limited to D40's right now), and love cheap lenses. External hard drives, heck we may even consider AA batteries.

[The Philos]

I've got 3 bottles of HC-110 and about half a gallon of T-Max Developer (the concentrate not the working solution) left both are great developers. Someone should snag this stuff up really quickly.

[lokerd]

I am only 41 and plan to continue the darkroom as long as I can get my hands on reasonable priced chemicals. The problem I had this year was I learned that a bunch of my old Dektol powder concentrate went bad. I can only imagine during either Rita or Ike. I am currently buying Arista (Freestyle) chemicals, paper, film, etc. It seems to do a good job. But I have two questions for you (or anybody else). 1) Do you think there is a significant reason to use name brand chemicals over Arista? Granted, I don't like the Arista EDU stuff...like some paper I accidentally got...too cheap. But the Arista Premium seems to be pretty good all the way around. What do you think?

2) How long can I reasonably expect concentrated powder or other even liquid concentrated chemicals to last? IOW, if I get yours, how long will it last?

Thanks!

[Daniel W.]

To date our instructor, the peak of his career was writing for the Houston Post, and as soon as he could afford it, he bought the new Yashica-D as his first real camera. It's an excellent thing to learn, but I know would never be approved in the coming years, heck most teachers don't even want to.

Arista / Freestyle isn't bad stuff for our use. It's not going to run in the book anymore, and these kids aren't eagle eyes for the best quality.

1. We have the HC110 because the previous instructor preferred it, not sure why. There was a bulk order before he left in the mid-90's. It's still good though, as much of it is unopened. I have a bottle of Arista film developer that I have yet to try though. It got accidentally ordered instead of paper developer.

I'm on the fence about Arista EDU, but for paper we've stuck to the premium. Have a boat load of glossy, going to be trying the pearl this week while the kids are doing shadowgrams. I love the Prem. film, the EDU (foma) is... iffy, but contrasty.

As far as powder, I'm not 100% sure because the powder I've encountered either doesn't have an exp. date or worked. I tried some Ilford P3P powdered developer, works great. I also tried some hypo from powder that is at least 6 years old, unopened, also a good run. The instructor tells me that he was taught powder hold up longer because it's less prone to oxidation than liquid is, but he never bought powder because it was a pain to mix.

I know we lost a 5 gallon kit of Arista fixer because someone "relocated" with open top next to a warming unit for the PA system while they turned one of our rolling rooms into TAKS material storage... had to chunk. By chunk, I mean I had to sit there, hold it up, and slowly pour the glop into our silver recovery drain. I've also run into Arista color kits (blix and all that unnecessary crud) that was trash.