Fogged film

[Twigs]

Argh. The mishap continues.

I developed two rolls in a Paterson tank today. While cutting the film I noticed the spacing was harder to see than usual, the film was fogged! The fogging only affected the picture areas (and in between frames), but not near the edges of the film (where the sprockets holes are).

I think this might be caused by me loading the tank but not developing right away. The tank was wrapped in a black micro-fleece blanket and kept in my closet for two days.

These two rolls, both HP5+ rated at 1600, were shot in early March and had also gone through several x-ray scanners: London Eurostar, London Heathrow, Paris CDG, and Montreal. Upon returning to Vancouver they were kept in the fridge. I figured if it was the X-ray scanners then the area along the edges would be affected as well.

A little bit more about my method/tools: I load the plastic reels in a bathroom, a 36 exposure roll of 135 takes me less than a minute to load. This Paterson tank is new, I have developed about 30 rolls with it, and all the rest were fine. I test my developer and fixer before every run as well.

What would be other possible cause to this fogging? And how long can I keep film in the daylight tank safely, if I absolutely cannot develop them right away?

Thanks for reading! 🙂

 

[David William White]

Puzzling. Loaded into tank, wrapped in blanket, and in closet should be as light tight as a film canister, if not more.

Can you scan a bit to show?

 

[Doug]

Also odd that there's no fogging along the edges of the film... what could fog the center including between frames and not the edges? Makes me wonder about unwanted light coming in through the shutter during film winding; is the fogging fairly uniform or does it vary in intensity?

 

[Twigs]

I scanned the roll today. I would say that it actually scanned pretty nicely, and I have some keepers too 😀

Doug, the fogging is most severe near the end of the roll, i.e. near the outside of the reel if it's caused by my tank. I've attached a picture of the un-exposed portion of the film at the very end of the roll. It seems there is also some fogging near the edges too.

I don't think it is the camera, as I have shot many rolls after and they were fine. (I have a last in first out policy for developing my backlog)

BTW, the line thru the sample scan happens with my Epson 4490 scanner randomly, I'm still trying to figure out what triggers it.

This just hit me... could it be insufficient fixing? I did test the fixer before the run tho, and I gave it ample time in the tank. It's Ilford Rapid Fixer 1+4, it took approx 75 sec to clear the film leader, and I fixed the film for 5 minutes, agitated 30 sec initially and then 3 inversions per minute.

 

[dfoo]

Easy to find out whether its the fix. Put a piece back in the fix for 10 minutes and see whether it clears.

 

[Doug]

Light fogging shows up dark on the negative. Going by the light look of your neg, I'd say it's something else, probably you're right that it's in the developing process.

 

[David William White]

Looks to me like fogging that occurred while still in the reel and exposed to light, maybe during the wash cycle. Would explain why its worse at the end of the roll. And the reel kept the edges from fogging. So as dfoo suggests, just refix and all should be well.

 

[Doug]

Once the film is fixed it can be safely exposed to light, but insufficiently fixed film can get a milky look. As mentioned, refixing is likely to "fix" that problem. 🙂 Hope that's it...

 

[Twigs]

Update: Turns out the fixer was exhausted during the processing. A new patch of fixer solved the problem. Thanks again everyone! 🙂