[ytterbium]

If i have white residue at the bottom of fixer concentrate bottle, is it usable?

I ran a film using it and it seemed to be fine, still i'm just a beginner so i might not notice a problem.

I have the Agfa age fix bottle for about six months. At first i thought the bottle was just of weird plastic, but as the crystals on it's wall built up, i can now see them cracking and separating.

[Ben_Edict]

A bit of crystallysation is no problem with fix. You can mix the crystalls back into the solution. If you use your fixer only infrequently, I would get a pack of test strips to test for depletion.

Ben

[ytterbium]

What got me worried is when i tried to mix them back. Shaking the fixer has no effect.
When i bend the bottle, they flake off the walls and stay as solid pieces in solution. This might damage film.

[tibbitts]

It's normal practice to filter every chemical as it's poured into the tank, so I don't see where gunk in the bottles would be a problem. Obviously huge chunks might indicated a change in the chemical contents, but little crystals should be harmless since they'll never make it to the film. I used primitive filtering (layers of cloth), but still tapped huge amounts of gunk that otherwise would probably have wound up embedded in the emulsion. You do have to be careful to keep the flow rate fast enough through the filter to get the chemicals changed out in time, particularly when pouring in the developer - you don't want the bottom half of the film developed much longer than the top half. Basically, the better the filter (at least with a cheap filter), the slower the flow.

Paul

[Wheatfield]

Rapid fixers are rather prone to growing crystals, and no, they won't go back into solution once formed.
The grow faster if the fixer is kept cool.
I never, ever bothered to filter my chemistry when I was doing my own processing. I don't think it is necessary.

[ytterbium]

Thanks for the advices.
Funny i always thought that chemicals are better preserved when kept in cool places - so i did the same with fix.
I guess i should move my big unused fixer bottle to warmer place then.


Btw are there any good current adapters for film to dslr conversion? Cant find a decent one, and 100$ for a black plastic tube is too much. 120 film support is highly preferred.
I'd like one that has no lens (except maybe a close focus element) but allows distance adjustment - one that isnt too restrictive. I know some lens based ones are useful only for 35mm slr's.
Now i'm leaning towards building one myself. But you it is hard to make nice film guide with paper and glue. Camera attachment is tricky as well.