Developing disaster

wakarimasen

wakarimasen

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Hello Folks,

I just finished developing a roll of Delta 400 with disastrous results: the film was blank.

I used D76 (which I've had for a while) at stock solution for 9.5 minutes as per the film box. My stop solution is also a little old, as is the fixer, but I planned to use it with this film and then replace both with fresh bottles of concentrate which I bought last week.

On emptying the D76 from the tank, the liquid had a slight purplish tint, which I have seen before and thought normal. When emptying the stop, I poured it back into the measuring jug, and did the same with the fixer.

The first water rinse also had a purplish tinge, which I thought a little odd. After I noticed that the film was blank, I also saw that the stop that I'd used was now cloudy rather than clear as is usual.

Can anyone tell me what went wrong?

Best regards,
RoyM
 
To me, with your description, it seems like the developer was just water or neutralized. I'm still using D-76 I mixed up in July of 2012. It still works fine. I use MT 2 liter soda bottles for the stock solution and they work great. The cap seals the bottle over & over. And the plastic doesn't react with the chemicals.

Perchance you poured the stop bath into the developer bottle last time you used it?

At any rate, I recommend mixing up more developer.

The color you see is from an anti halation layer.

Hope this info. helps you!

Film developing is an adventure!
 
Hello Bill I wondered at the time if this might be so, but I compared the smell of the developer (faint odour of eggs!) with that of the stop (odourless). To be safe (and, if I'm honest as part of a petulant tantrum) I've binned the old developer and stop, just to be on the safe side. I wondered if - perhaps - the stop was no good, and the developer had continued to work for too long?
 
Define "blank". That could mean any number of things. Are the frame numbers on the edge?

is the start of the roll black (the part outside the cassette)?
 
If you can read the frame numbers your chemical processing was OK. If everything is blank then mix up fresh chemicals ...
 
Thanks for all of the suggestions folks I'm 100% sure that I used developer, as the fixer is a clear liquid and the D76 that I had mixed, had a very faint straw colour.

The roll of film was absolutely blank: no frame numbers or anything.

As regard the film winding on, I remember it 'not winding' when I came to the 36th (or so) exposure, so I don't think that was a problem.

I double-checked the shutter last night and that seems ok.

I think I'll run a roll of C41 through the camera (a Zeiss Ikon ZM) just to check its' operation, without the processing being a variable, and then mix-up a new batch of chemicals.

Very disappointing to lose a whole roll of film. I'm not a prolific picture taker, so the roll has been in the camera for around 3-4 months. I can't even remember what I've lost, which sort of makes it worse.
 
With the film totally blank the diagnosis is, film was not developed at all, so check your developer stage, and also make sure you don't let the stop bath or the fixer into the developer, as this could compromise development.
My advice as to D76:
Find Grolsch beer in 450cc green bottles with a swing cap and buy 8 of these. Drink the beer and wash the bottles.
Mix up a gallon of D76 and pour the liquid into the bottles to the brim ( try this with pure water first, to see exactly how much liquid you need and when dissolving D76 make that amount of stock deveoloper). Close tightly the bottles - this way you can keep the developer for several months.
Alternative: buy a liter of HC110 concentrate and use that diluted one shot - lasts forever.
As to stop bath - gt rid of it, it is redundant. As to the fixer, dilute it somewhat more and use as one shot as well, this way it will never fail. Develop, then fix directly without any bath in between.
 
I had exactly the same thing happen to me (using DDX). Basically the developer was spent so the film was not developed and there was nothing to fix, so nothing (ie blank negatives) was the result.
 
mfogiel said:
With the film totally blank the diagnosis is, film was not developed at all, so check your developer stage..... Close tightly the bottles - this way you can keep the developer for several months.
Click to expand...

My D76 was almost certainly mixed last year and has been kept in concertina plastic bottles since then - and never full to the brim. Would it have deteriorated so much in that time as to be useless?

I'm wondering if - given the low frequency of my developing - whether changing to a concentrate wouldn't just be the best idea from now on. I have some Adox Adonal which perhaps might be a better solution (pardon the pun) for me.
 
Adonal I think is essentially Rodinal, so it will last forever too, but results with HC110 will be closer to D76.
 
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