Fixer longevity : how many rolls/prints?

[delphine]

Thank you to all.

One time shot for film and re-use for prints is a easy and safe rule of thumb to go by. I think I'll stick to that.

Happy new year !!

Delphine

[ooze]

This is because I do not want silver particles sticking to the emulsion of my film.

Does this phenomenon exist? If so, what are the effects?

Cheers,
omar

[23mjm]

Hello Delphine

Just want to share a thought with you. One of the reasons I am a big fan of Ilford is the documentation that they provide about their chemicals. The Ilford Rapid Fix will do 24 rolls of 35mm/36exp---80 sheets of 8X10 RC---40 sheets of 8X10 Fiber all per litre. These are good numbers--I normally limit it to 20 rolls of film/litre. Now I am not a wacko environmentalist but I do believe in using my chems to the max amount reasonably possible. 1-shot fixer seams to be a waste of fixer and pouring more junk down the drain than necessary. Just a thought.

Also I have never heard of "silver particles sticking to the negative" but hey they could fill a book with what I don't know!!!!

[delphine]

23mjm,

Stoo suggested a one time use on film processing then, the fixer is re-used till exhaustion (or your preferred usage level) in your printing session.

And as Stoo referred to the silver particules. I don't know if it is what I saw yesterday (I suspect it is). I saw tiny particules, here and there, at the surface of one of my films drying yesterday. (Definitely not dust). They were visible only when the film was wet (can't see anything now nor water mark). I don't know if that was silver particules.

With that in the back on my mind, I tested the fix this afternoon, I gasped.

Delphine

[Akki14]

My bottle of FX20 Fotospeed fixer says for film, test using a leader and timing the clearing time. Depending on who you talk to here on here, you then double or treble that time for your film fixing time. When that time reaches double what it takes to clear when fresh, throw out the fixer.
For paper it says 1litre does 40 8x10 prints.

[Stoo Batchelor]

Does this phenomenon exist? If so, what are the effects?

Cheers,
omar

Dear Omar and All

Firstly, I too am no expert when it comes to film development, so I can only speak as I find (or write as it is here)

Some years back I had a problem with crud on my negatives. I went through a process of elimination to get rid of the problem. The problem turned out to be my water supply, yet, before arriving at this conclusion, one of the things that I picked up on here on APUG, was that when re-using fixer, you are subjecting your film to a fluid that is full of silver particles. Now, the way I see it, if my film emulsion is soft enough to hold on to a lump of lime from my water supply, so much so that it takes a good scrape with a cotton bud to clean it, and even then sometimes it will not budge, then I am sure that the same emulsion is quite capable of holding on to all that silver floating about in the used fixer. I prefer that my film sits in a clean change of chemicals throughout the development process.

My method may be a bit extravagant but my film is always squeeky clean now, and I usually only have to pick of the occasional fleck of dust with the tip of a brush.

Regards

Stoo

[catem]

I never re-use fix - either for film or for prints. (For prints I currently tend to use one bath of Hypam at 1 : 4 (and throw) - if I was using a 2-bath fixer I would keep it for the second bath). The test for fixer freshness from the bottle is still useful - but I don't think I ever keep it long enough for it to go off (I buy the 5l bottles).

[eddie gunks]

i reuse fixer. i use the fixer check liquid to determine exhaustion.

i have been told not use the same fixer fro prints and film. i guess the prints fixer can harm the film.

FWIW

eddie

[Trey]

One thing to consider when reusing film fixer for paper is whether or not there is hardener in there. If so, you may encounter problems if you try to tone later on.

[Andrew Moxom]

I re-use all film fixer many times until the clearing times get longer than about 45 seconds. All my film sits in fixer for 2.5 minutes. I've never encountered any problems. I use Ilford Hypam for all film and printing as it's non hardening.

For printing, I use ilfords two bath system diluted 1:7 for each bath. I fix FB prints for 1 minute in each bath. When the printing session of no more than 12 prints is complete, I throw away the first bath, and reuse the second bath as the first bath in the next printing session. Seems to work well, and good economy etc. I've never had a problem with staining or issues with toning washing etc.