We have recently moved house. In our last home the water was full of impurities, and film developing was impossible. Negatives were destroyed with multiple little white flecks. Eventually I just gave up. 

On Saturday I thought, to while away an hour or two, I’d look through my old darkroom kit and see what was still usable. I found an unopened bottle of Fotospeed developer, (use by 11/2011). It was the colour of black ink, so it was disposed of. 

There was also an unopened bottle of Ilfosol, which must have been around 6 or 7 years old, and a similarity aged bottle of fixer. Unopened Ilfosol has a shelf life of around 18 months, so it should have been useless. 

I also discovered that there was an undeveloped film in my Nikon F100, which also hasn’t been used for five years or more (at least). It was an Ilford ISO125. 

So I set to work! Developer mixed at 1 part Ilfosol to 9 parts water, fixer the same. Seven minutes in the developer, five in the mixer, ten in the wash. (I’d no wetting agent) 

And, PERFECT NEGATIVES! 

Old film, old chemicals and old man – and everything still works. (Well, almost everything.)