Spent $80 on a developing kit that was straight up expired

Picked up a 'bargain' C-41 kit from a guy on Facebook Marketplace and didn't check the date. After ruining 3 rolls of Portra 400 with weird color shifts, I realized the chemicals were 2 years past their shelf life. Anyone else get burned by old chemistry before?

3 comments

3 Comments

karenm491mo ago

The "2 years past shelf life" part is probably wrong. Most C-41 kits have a shelf life of about 12-18 months from manufacture date if they're sealed. If they were already mixed into working solution, you're lucky to get 6 months before they go bad. I've seen people store opened blix for 3 months and it starts dropping silver like crazy. Chances are those chems were more like 3-4 years old at least. The seller probably knew they were bad, that's why they unloaded them cheap.

williams.amy1mo ago

Wait, wasn't there something about those liquid concentrates too? I remember reading somewhere that once you break the seal on those bottles and let air in, the clock starts ticking way faster. Like even if it's concentrate and not mixed, that oxygen exposure still messes with the stabilizer or something. I bet that seller knew exactly what they were doing, dumping old stock on someone who might not test it right away. I've had blix that was maybe 8 months old and it just gave me these weird brown streaks no matter how careful I was with temp and agitation. The whole thing sounds like a mess waiting to happen.

simonp401mo ago

Did you check the concentrate bottles to see if they were still sealed? @williams.amy mentioned that once air gets in, the clock starts ticking way faster, and I read a similar thing from a lab tech once. They said even unopened liquid kits can go bad if they freeze during shipping or sit in a hot car too long. My guess is that seller stored those chemicals in a garage or shed where temps fluctuated like crazy, not just relying on the printed expiration date. I got burned once with some old RA-4 chems that looked fine but gave me green shadows on every print. Now I always ask sellers for the manufacture date and how they stored the stuff before buying anything like that.