As most respondents have already noted, Dektol does have a light tea coloring when first mixed. This color does intensify as it ages and oxidizes. The precipitate will form when the mixing temperature is off. I believe it will clear but have never had to deal with it. The color to watch out for is the color of the chemicals coming out of the package as they too oxidize and turn brown. After moving and having to take over a year to get my darkroom up an running, I quickly mixed up two 1 gal. packages of dektol that I'd stored during that time. I had to throw them both out unused as the chemicals themselves had turned brown. Dektol has a definite capacity of prints per gallon or lt. of working strength chemistry. It is roughly 80/25 fiber based 8x10 or equivalent prints per gal/lt. This number, in my experience, is more exact than rough. The softening that was referred to is a degradation of contrast. For me it will happen from one print to the next, at which point I throw it out and mix fresh. This is a poor and unreliable way to control contrast. It is more reliable to use fresh Dektol and control contrast either with filtration if using VC paper, or with the two developer system with graded paper switching between Selectol Soft and Dektol. Other comparable developer combinations are just as reliable in this fashion. Each batch of working strength solution should also have one blank piece of paper run through in white light for the full time to "season" the developer. If not, the first print will be of higher contrast than the rest. As far as the time it takes for the image to first appear, RC paper should take roughly 10 seconds +/-. If it takes 15 + seconds your developer is reaching exhaustion and should be discarded to maintain adequate contrast control. FB paper will take considerably longer to come up, as much as 30 seconds. Full development is also longer with FB, 2 - 3 minutes as opposed to 1 minute with RC. As for mixing a 5 lt, bottle of Polymax paper dev., who said you had to mix it all at once? The convenience of a liquid stock concentrate is that you only need mix as much as you need for a given session. The ratio is the same whether you need one liter of working strength or 2 gallons. Leave the syrup in the bottle and just mix it from there as needed. You can work out the ratio from the instructions. I do this with TMax RS developer. I just squeeze Part B into the bottle and mix it from there. I also do it with Kodak Rapid Fixer which I buy by the 5 gallon box. I mix Hypo Clearing Agent to a 1 gal. stock and dilute 1:4 for working strength. It all works just fine. Peace! -- God said, Let there be light! Divine Light: Photography by Rev. Sidney Flack 2507 E. 2nd Street Tulsa, OK 74104-1903 http://www.divinelightphotography.com
