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For those that are interested, Dale Grant has posted his chemical analysis of the Chinese Amidol on the MAS site;
http://michaelandpaula.com/mp/AzoFor...ID=10524&CID=5
Looks like contamination of Fe and Ni are responsible for the red wine color and I would say the high amount of Sn and possibly other contaminants would be responsible for the black sludge.
B. Dalton
Very interesting. Any chance of a recall (just kidding)?
Why isn't this entirely surprising?
Your link is buggered - it should be http://michaelandpaula.com/mp/AzoFor...ID=10524&CID=5
The table is buggered too, but at least it's possible to read if you know what you're looking for.
What's worse is that it doesn't make sense at all! There is absolutely no way that 98% Amidol can contain 39.18% Magnesium and 11.24% Calcium by weight.
Which means that what is presented is the percentages of those elements which have been analysed, with no way of finding out what fraction this is of the whole. For all the analysis tells us, the Chinese amidol could actually be far purer than the reference! And what kind of spectra have been compared? Light? UV? IR? Xray? Emission or absorption?
Sorry for the incorrect link and thanks Ole for posting the correct one. Way too long a day for me yesterday.
Note that Mr. Grant has posted a reply to explain how the test was performed. The Amidol was 100% removed in order to more accurately ascertain the impurities and the percentages refer only to elements other than Amidol.
As is pointed out, there is no way to know the ratio of Amidol to impurities, but I feel it is safe to say that the ratio is sufficient to cause adverse effects to be noted in use. So the amounts of impurities are obviously sufficient to affect the usability of the product.
An interesting study for sure!
B. Dalton
It's very interesting, but it still needs a bit more data before it's useful. I've replied (again) in the original thread over there. :)
i don't use amidol, but i know
people waited a long time
for this to come their way from china ...
does this mean that the impurities
make the chemical pretty much useless
for print developing?
if so, that is really sad ... that people had to wait
all this time, spend all that money and come up
with something that doesn't work ... or work the way it should
:(
I don't think anybody is surprised anymore when poor quality product comes out of China. I dodge it unless it's a Holga camera. It's supposed to suck. :)
Like John says, it is a pity if it's not usable. I saw a posting of Jim Galli in the galleries that was printed with that Amidol, and it appeared as if he had to jump through both one and two hoops to get to what he needed, but it was usable to him.
- Thomas
I've been using this Chinese Amidol and so for, I don't have problem with it....
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
Stefano
Italy
Thomas, you have obviously not been following the thread about a lot of happy new Chamonix camera owners on the LF forum. There's a lot of fine gear coming out of China, some far superior to what is made in the US.
That put aside, i use the Chinese Amidol and yes, it needs a little extra time in preparation but is working just as it is supposed to do. Lot's of contrast control with a water bath.
Merry Christmas everyone.
jan