1st roll: big grey blotches...

T

Terao

Kiloran
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Aug 14, 2006
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Well, I did my first ever roll this evening and something went wrong. Perhaps starting with 120 rollfilm wasn't the best idea but as that's what I'll mainly be shooting I felt it was appropriate to dive in the deep end.

These grey blotches are evenly spaced 3 frames of 6x7 apart. They cover one half of each frame. Seem to be on the upper surface of the film (shiny side up, lettering/numbers on the rebates are readable L-R). If I lay the film flat so that its mainly black I can see these grey blotches very clearly on the shiny side. On the other side I can only see them in the rebates. Holding the film up to the light I can see the shot detail through the grey.

Film was Tri-X rated at ISO400 and developed for 8 minutes in 1+4 Ilford DD-X @ 20 degrees followed by Ilfostop followed by Ilford RapidFix for 4 minutes. Washed the tank in running water at process temperature for 5 minutes.

Having typed all this out I'm guessing uneven development? I used 500ml of dev in a two reel tank (AP tank). Only put one reel in, didn't take up the spare space, will that have been a bad idea? I was agitating every minute for 10 seconds by inverting the tank 5 times.

I also had a few problems loading the reel. Whilst I'd practised with a previously developed roll of 120 I hadn't taken into account the whole backing paper thing so didn't know what to expect and ended up touching the film probably more than I would have liked sorting that problem out. Might that have caused a problem?

Have to say though I'm already hooked. Its cool to be able to do the whole thing yourself, B&W film dev typically takes a week here particularly when you start doing weird stuff like pushing 2 stops (I know, its not weird at all but it is to a minilab). Its cool to learn a whole new skill :)
 
Film was Tri-X rated at ISO400 and developed for 8 minutes in 1+4 Ilford DD-X @ 20 degrees followed by Ilfostop followed by Ilford RapidFix for 4 minutes.

Terao,
I'm thinking that the film requires more thorough fixing. The good news is that you can still do this.
 
Either refix or the film was touching in the spiral.
Refixing is easy and will give you a good idea of what happened.
 
2nd test roll turned out much much better - gave it 5 minutes (Ilford Pan F 50), currently drying but looks good :)
 
To test the fixer I usually dunk an off cut of the film I am developing in the fixer,time how long it takes to clear and then use double that time to fix my film.To be totally accurate Ilford recomend dev and stop before the test but I have never bothered going that far.This is helpful as the fixer becomes exhausted and when it is more than twice as long to clear than fresh fix it is time to throw it away.I would probably use a time similar to the one you did with fresh rapid fix but I would wash for 15 -20 min even tho Ilford recommend 5-10 min.I dont think overwashing causes any problems.
Regards
Steve
 
Glad the 2nd roll worked out ok...it does sound like on that first roll that your fill was touching while on the reel when developed.
 
Washing requires 10 minutes normally
specially if you use the fill and dump method

4 or 5 washes is more than plenty
 
If you were having problems loading the reels my guess would be that the film was touching on the reels...if you feel that the roll didn't slide in smoothly you might be better off doing it again...
 
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