Eukobrom exhausation : reality check

[Laurent]

Hello all,

I've been fighting with my printing skills in the last months, and thought I was unable of printing consistently without understanding why.

This seems to happen more often for FB paper (Ilford Ilfobrom Galerie to be precise), and long before one would thought the working solution (1+9) is exhausted.

In the last case, I printer less than 10 5x7 sheets on one evening, and on the next evening I found that what printed nicely on grade 3 became WAY too dark and contrasty.

I use a dish warmer to keep developer at working temp (around 22°C), and my typical session lasts 2 to 3 hours.

My Eukobrom is bought in 5 liters jar, then decanted in 1l bottles, and I use Protectan to top-off the developer so that it does not oxydize.

Since I understood my issues were caused by the developer, I decided to use it one shot (1 jar should last me 50 sessions, and that makes the price low enough* to accept it)

Does this seem reasonable, or am I missing something ?

* especially if I consider the cost of wasted paper against the cost of developper.

[MartinP]

There are very few developers that will stay usable for more than, say, ten hours as a working solution. It sounds as though it was somehow becoming more alkaline, or active, before it oxidised and stopped working??

Unless there is a specification sheet saying differently, one-shot would be the normal way to use a paper developer. For a 5x7 dish that might only require 450ml or so of working solution, hence 45ml of the stock - so quite do-able, as you say.

[Slixtiesix]

You could also try Calbe N113 (now Adolux Adotol Konstant). This is a powder paper developer with exceptional shelf life, especially in trays. Pretty robust stuff. It´s cheap too, so trying would not cost you much. I have used Eukobrom before but now this is my developer of choice.

[ath]

Eukobrom has a reputation as long lasting and robust developer. If you just leave the working solution in the tray between sessions it goes off much faster than if you store the diluted developer in a bottle. Two things count: amount of paper developed and exposure time to air (oxygen).

[Laurent]

Eukobrom has a reputation as long lasting and robust developer. If you just leave the working solution in the tray between sessions it goes off much faster than if you store the diluted developer in a bottle. Two things count: amount of paper developed and exposure time to air (oxygen).

In my case, I stored it in "accordion" bottles betweens sessions, so exposition to air should be minimal.

I'll use it one shot at least for a while, and see if this improves reliability.