Spoiled Neopan 400 negs

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alexz

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Just processed by second Neopan 400 roll - yet again no success with Neopan (the first one appeared to be overly contarsty - probaly overdeveloped).
What I mmediately notice - the perforation area isn't clear but arther dirty-black (inconsistent) and many frames appear (to my eye) have some kind of slight brownish cast...
What can cause to such ? What kind of processing errors ? Insufficient final wash ? (after fixer) ? I did just ilke I used to do with Tri-X (3-4 times of water change in the tank with agitation, 5, 10, 10, 20 times), then a short bath in photoflo...
 
The attached are two frames as a reference. I deliberately scanned them in RGB and not Grayscale, even though they shot on B&W film. Here we can see the gray streaks across the frames, also the second one appears to exhibit some kind of light leak at the top. Also, the entire film appears to be underdeveloped (which is separate story).
What these can be ? I assume these are my processing mistakes, I experienced similar effects (except of underdevelopment) on another film, processed yesterday, eahc of these two rolls were shot in different cameras (M3 and M6). M3 has been just revived and appears to work beautifully, but natuarlly, working with M6 extensively I have my confidence at least in it, so these aren't camera issues.

Please advise...

Thanks, Alex
 

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Either your processing tank isnt light tight, or your camera isnt light tight. Also, the brown would be due to insufficient fixing- might just be not enough fixer in the tank (I would imagine)
 
Get a new tank and new fixer.
The brown stains are indicative of exhausted fixer (or, if they're on only one side, not enough fixer), and the white lines are clearly light leaks. Since the leaks are directly through the sprocket holes, it's a safe bet that they didn't happen in-camera but instead while inside the developing tank.

Are you using steel or plastic tanks? If it's steel you might just need to find a different cap; if it's plastic I would replace the whole assembly.
 
Thanks.
Unlikely the cameras, but tank ? Xmm, weird. Didn't get such in my pervious 10-12 rolls of Tri-X...
brown - inssfficient fixing ? can be also from insufficient washing (after foxer) ?
 
erikhaugsby said:
Get a new tank and new fixer.
The brown stains are indicative of exhausted fixer (or, if they're on only one side, not enough fixer), and the white lines are clearly light leaks. Since the leaks are directly through the sprocket holes, it's a safe bet that they didn't happen in-camera but instead while inside the developing tank.

Are you using steel or plastic tanks? If it's steel you might just need to find a different cap; if it's plastic I would replace the whole assembly.
Click to expand...

I have a regular jobo tank - relatively new - did about 10-15 rolls in it, so far didn't experience issues like that. I think first I'll sort out fixer - will prepare new solution, will fix a bit longer (proably 10 minutes on Tmax 400) instead of my usual 5, and wash longer after the fix. That hopefully will help to get rid of brown stains. Then we will see regarding the light leak..
 
The right side of the vertical shot and the bottom of the horizontal shot are fine. That wouldn't be the case if your fixer was exhausted. You just didn't have enough fixer in the tank.

The white streaks are something else, but I agree that it also appears to have happened in the tank, not in the camera.
 
what titriol said: REEFIX.


I had exactly the same problem, thinking the camera was faulty, the tank, the darkroom etc. in fact its dead esasy: Neopan needs a MUCH longer fixing time than other films. I usually go for 7-8 minutes with a fresh fixer.
you can easily see if this is your problem if you put one stripe (or the whole film if you haven't cuted it yet) back in the fixer (don't worry its ok!) and fix for another couple of minutes (in daylight as i said no problem!) you'll see all your marks and "strange brownish casts" vanish. magic!!

Try it
michael
 
Well, just developed a roll of Tmax 400 (second roll through my "fresh" M3), prepared a fresh fixer solution (300ml instead of 240ml I did previously - just to make sure it covers entire reel (single one)), film leader test cleared after just 40 seconds, but I nevertheless fixed the film for 5 minutes as I used to. Then an extensive washing followed and at last - the film looks good, the perforation appears to be clear.
Now it is hanging to dry, tomorrow will scan it.
So far so good....
 
Yes, thanks, I was pointed to that already. In fact, the film appears to be grossly underdeveloped anyway, so I can see little point in trying to salvage it...
 
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