Developer shelf life

[leica dream]

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Having returned to film in recent months I have been using labs for processing my FP4 rolls. Many years ago back in the 1960's I had my own fully equipped darkroom and was a prolific shooter. Nowadays much less sol and maybe shoot perhaps 3 or 4 rolls per year. Even so, straight develop and postage ( not scanned) via lab is about £10/11 per roll so I have been considering home processing again - presumably Ilfotec DD-X. However, with such low activity I wonder whether the shelf life once opened could mean that, in my circumstances, home precessing might turn out to be counter cost effective against Labs. It looks like Ilfoterc concentrate lasts 4 months once openned.

Any views?

[david strachan]

One can get concertina bottles to exclude air.  In old days some would make up lost volume in ordinary bottles, with marbles.

...

[Pieter12]

I use Rodinal. It lasts forever.

[Einst_Stein]

3 hours ago, leica dream said:

Having returned to film in recent months I have been using labs for processing my FP4 rolls. Many years ago back in the 1960's I had my own fully equipped darkroom and was a prolific shooter. Nowadays much less sol and maybe shoot perhaps 3 or 4 rolls per year. Even so, straight develop and postage ( not scanned) via lab is about £10/11 per roll so I have been considering home processing again - presumably Ilfotec DD-X. However, with such low activity I wonder whether the shelf life once opened could mean that, in my circumstances, home precessing might turn out to be counter cost effective against Labs. It looks like Ilfoterc concentrate lasts 4 months once openned.

Any views?

I guess your choices would be:

1: use longer shelf life chemistry, such as Rodin SL, HC110, etc. These two are cheap enough and last very long. 
2: use small quantity per package. I found Adox XT3 1L package works fine (~usd 7)

3: shoot more. 

I am reluctant to lab develop. There is noth8ng wrong, but I just prefer to develop myself. Hey, that is the major part of the fun!

[250swb]

DD-X doesn't have a very long shelf live after it's opened, but then again at 1+4 dilution it doesn't take long to get through a one litre bottle. Rodinal lasts forever but it's a bit grainy if you are shooting with FP4, and HC110 is best kept for medium format negatives because it's not the sharpest of developers although it's tonal qualities are excellent. Out of those my preference would be DD-X, but I'd add one to the list with Adox FX39 II. This can be bought in 100ml or 500ml bottles and is diluted 1+9, so a 100ml bottle is going to do three 35mm films or two 120. A 500ml bottle is more cost effective however. In practice FX-39 is like a combination of the acutance of Rodinal and the fine grain and tonal range of Xtol.

[TomB_tx]

I use DD-X as a one-shot and just keep the stock in its original bottle. usually takes about a year to use up, and I notice no adverse effects - but some darkening of solution. I also use Rodinal on fine-grain films for its nice tonality, but it does emphasize grain. Now that I'm shooting and processing color more it will take longer to use up the DD-X, so I'll need to watch it.

[BernardC]

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6 hours ago, 250swb said:

Rodinal lasts forever but it's a bit grainy if you are shooting with FP4, and HC110 is best kept for medium format negatives because it's not the sharpest of developers although it's tonal qualities are excellent.

Rodinal can be a bit grainy, but not at higher dilutions. I don't find it too grainy with other ISO 100 films, but I don't use FP4. You can do an image search for "FP4 Rodinal" to see if it's too grainy for you. 

My standard dilution is 5ml per 300ml (Paterson tank), which is 1+59.

[leica dream]

I guess everyone has preferences for their own needs, but all that information you have given is really helpful and has encouraged me to identify associated STOP and FIX options which I think will not be so critical.

Grateful thanks for the encouragement.

[erl]

On 3/19/2025 at 7:05 AM, david strachan said:

One can get concertina bottles to exclude air.  In old days some would make up lost volume in ordinary bottles, with marbles.

...

That's how I lost my marbles! 🙄

[erl]

Give consideration to 'One Shot' processing. That way you can keep the remaining dev spread over a series of smaller bottles and only need to open one for immediate dev, storing the others indefinitely. 

[Doug A]

For someone starting film developing from scratch and wondering about what developer to start with I usually recommend Rodinal. It is inexpensive, has amazing shelf life, is used one-shot, and gives the user a baseline look at the highest acutance and most obvious grain of all the standard developer choices. 

Flickr is a good place to see how various films work with various developers. Do a search with keywords <film> and <developer> such as "FP4 Rodinal", "Tri-X Ilfosol", etc. And because the negative size matters too I include the keyword "35mm", "Nikon" or "Leica" for 35mm or the keyword "120" or "Hasselblad" for medium format.