Is my developer contaminated?

[jpa66]

I suppose I should ask: WAS my developer contaminated, as I threw it out.

Anyway, I just attempted to develop two rolls of film from a recent trip. One was 135 and the other ( in the same tank ) was 120. I developed them in Pyrocat HD, and fixed them in Formulary's TF-5. The film was Tri-x.

When I started to wash the film, I noticed that there was a pinkish color to the water ( I use the Ilford wash method ) after each time I discarded the water. I took the film out, and saw to my horror that the film was completely clear. Nothing was on the film at all. No numbers, no "light leaks" etc. Just a bit pinkish and clear.

My assumption is that the developer was somehow contaminated. I haven't lost a roll of film like this in well over 20 years, and I'm quite upset over it ( but I'll be fine ). However, I wanted other peoples' opinions as to what they think caused the faux pas. I believe that the developer somehow got contaminated, although I have no idea how, since I had just used it three days prior, and everything turned out fine.

Regardless, I dumped the remainder of the developer ( hardly any left ) and mixde up some new fix, then developed another roll of 120 Tri-X, which came out fine ( a little over-developed, as I was preoccupied at the time... ).

I was wondering if could have been that the fix was somehow contaminated, as it was a bit pinkish afterwards. My money is on the developer being somehow contaminated, although for the life of me, I can't imagine how it would have happened.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Jan

 

[loquax ludens]

Did you add your solution A and B to your developer? How old was your solution A? The solution A, unless mixed in propylene glycol, has a life of about a year according to Sandy King. Several years if mixed in propylene glycol. When solution A goes out, I've heard that it goes suddenly. I've never experienced that myself, as I mix up small stock solutions and use them fairly quickly.

Check out Sandy King's web site http://www.pyrocat-hd.com/

One more - see what Sandy said about contamination in this post on LFF.

 

[jpa66]

Yeah, both solutions were added, and there were both under a year old ( in glycol, too ). I just developed a roll three days prior to the current ones with the same developer.

The same thing happened to me years ago ( way back in college in the '80's ) when it became obvious that someone had poured fix into the developer ( instead of returning the used, but still good fix, back to it's proper container ). We discovered that was the case as it happened to several other people as well as me. That's why I'm suspecting the same culprit, but I just can't figure out how it could have happened. Unless of course the fix was bad, but I don't think that bad fix would completely erase everything that was exposed on the film.

 

[loquax ludens]

I edited my previous post, Jan, and pointed to a post on LFF where Sandy talked about contamination. There are lots of threads on APUG about Pyrocat-HD also.

 

[jordanstarr]

...In my experience, Pyro has always been pretty unstable and unpredictable at times, so I switched. Was there ANY lettering at all on the edge of the film...even just very faint? Contaminated developer generally will still produce SOME lettering on the edge of the film. Usually at COMPLETELY clear roll would indicate you fixed before developing it. I know your first reaction is "NO WAY WOULD I DO THAT!!", but most film developers have mixed chemicals at some point or another. Consider that a possibility, but since you mixed a new batch, make sure you run a test strip first and go from there.

 

[jpa66]

No lettering at all. And I definitely did not put fix in first, as the fix is already mixed in bottles and the developer I use as a one-shot. It's definitely a conundrum.

 

[jpa66]

I edited my previous post, Jan, and pointed to a post on LFF where Sandy talked about contamination. There are lots of threads on APUG about Pyrocat-HD also.

Thanks. I just read through it. Maybe part A or B got somehow contaminated with the other. The weird thing is that I just used them three days ago, and the results were fine. I still really like pyrocat, and will still use it, but a bit more cautiously now. Still wracking my brain trying to figure out what went wrong, though.