Chemistry supply issues incoming?

ChrisR

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I've seen a couple of posts that are somewhat worrying. Confirmation seems hard to come by. The first was a tweet: View: https://BANNED/donsusedphoto/status/1649457619499712523


"It is unofficially official, Sino Promise that makes Kodak chemistry has closed. No more Kodak Chemistry being made at all."

Now this might refer to the non-Europe market, since someone on that thread pointed out that their bottle of HC-110 said "Made in the EU", presumably by Tetenal.

But don't relax too soon... this post on Photrio is by Adox suggesting problems in Tetenal (stressing that Adox has made itself independent): https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/adox-chemistry-security-of-supply.198778/

"We have been asked many times over the past weeks if we are affected by the cease of manufacturing at Tetenals like most other large brands. While it is true that we used Tetenal in the past as a supplier of raw chemistry and volume mixings, we saw this coming and consequently shifted production into our own factory over the past two years. This means we manufacture all Adox chemistry products which are used in volumes (powder and liquid) in house since the first quarter of this year. However due to the unavailability of Ilford, Kodak, Tetenal and others demand is so strong at the time being that we cannot catch up on all products. On a parallel we are facing supply chain problems. We are working hard to ramp up the production and source chemicals in the needed volumes.
This posts intention is to communicate that we do not have a structural problem and Adox chemistry will be available for the future because we are fully independant from any other player in the industry.
This also makes us probably the last large brand where you can buy photo chemistry directly from the manufacturer with full support by the people who actually make what they sell "

As of this morning, I couldn't find HC-110 in stock anywhere in my usual suppliers. Several were out of stock of IlfoTec-HC as well (AFAIK Ilford chemistry is made by Tetenal), but it is currently available from IlfordPhoto at least. I decided not to order any, as the roughly 400 ml of HC-110 I still have will last me a couple of years at least, plus I have a bottle of ADOX FX-39 II, which is a lovely developer.

But, if you are running low on chemicals, now might be the time to get an order in. OTOH, this might be another one (or two) of those periodic scares that come and go!
 
thanks for the heads-up
 
Not good news. I used to use Unitol (Johnson's of Hendon) but that ceased production, and since then I've been wary of using a developer where the formula (or equivalent) isn't freely available so that I have a fighting chance of carrying on by mixing my own.
 
Unitol - Pan F in Unitol was always my standard, paired with Soluprint in the darkroom, until Johnsons closed. I could never get the same 'feel' from the Patersons chemicals that seemed to replace them in the shops.
I ended up using ID-11, Perceptol and Microphen plus various other 'brews' mixed from scratch.
After almost 60 years of enjoying photography as a hobby I really hope that I can continue using the chemicals that I need without having to resort to '0's and '1's.
 
I'm far from an expert on this, but can't you whip up some developer using coffee, and other readily available ingredients?
 
Yes; there's even a few formulae for using "under the sink" chemicals for Rodinal variant in this section of TP.

David: I was also PanF in Unitol. After the loss of Unitol and the demise of Kodachrome, I switched to medium and then large format black and white using Rodinal.
 
I'm far from an expert on this, but can't you whip up some developer using coffee, and other readily available ingredients?
Yup, Caffenol which uses instant coffee (the cheaper the brand the better), washing soda, vitamin C and potassium bromide (as an anti-fog agent for higher speed films). Iodised table salt dan be used as a replacement for the potassium bromide.

It seems pretty much anything can develop B&W film, I've seen web posts using beer (Beerol), wine, paracetemol (30 tablets for 250ml so might need to visit a few shops), star anise and gorse flowers, dried hibiscus flowers, dried and fresh thyme, etc.

Only one I've tried is Caffenol, which I keep using as it amuses me.
 
paracetemol (30 tablets for 250ml so might need to visit a few shops),

If you buy the Paracetamol from a pharmacist, you can usually get more than the 32 OTC limit, especially if you explain why you need so many.
 
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