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Just found out how much silver is actually in a roll of Tri-X

I was reading this old photo magazine from 1985, and it said a single 36-exposure roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 has about 0.4 grams of silver in the emulsion. That's a tiny amount, but it made me think about all the rolls I've shot and developed. It's wild that something so small is what makes the image appear in the developer. Makes me wonder if anyone here has ever tried to recover silver from their used fixer, or if it's even worth the hassle.

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the_jake4mo ago

Wait, you can actually get silver out of old fixer? I always thought that was just an old wives' tale.

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derekcarr4mo ago

That bit about the silver in the emulsion is what gets me. It reminds me of this old timer who ran the lab where I worked in college. He had a big glass jug under his fixer tank, crusted with this nasty black sludge he called his "retirement fund." He swore he'd cash it in one day, but last I heard, he just gave the whole jar to his grandkid for a science fair project.

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