Dirty negs?! Diafine?

[caffeineshutter]

I'm curious: Is that image you posted part of the neg, or part of a scanned print? (maybe I missed where you specified)

I've got under two years experience in the darkroom, but my first impulse--on seeing the specks complaint--was to agitate them in a Photo Flo + distillled water solution and dry them again.

I just ran into this same problem. I just souped my first roll of Shantou Era 100 B&W film in Diafine and got specks galore on my negatives. Total pain to clean up in photoshop. The thing is this is the first time I have run into this problem. I have probably done 15 rolls so far prior to this one.

Doesn't appear to be dust. Here are my chemicals.

1. Diafine made with distilled water
2. Water Stop , tap water
3. Fix made with distilled water
4. Water Wash tap water (15 min)
5. photoflo with tap water

Anybody have a clue where I am screwing up?

After this weekend I will do my second roll of Shantou Era and see what happens. I will be sure to run the shower prior to hanging up film.

 

[RicardoD]

The image is part of the scanned negative.

I re-use fixer. My Diafine gets poured back into the bottles via screened funnels. (although these specs are smaller the pore sizes on the little metal screens in my funnels) My fixer funneling is not screened. I will check the fixer and perhaps filter it. On my next roll I plan to not change the procedure.

What I did do last time now that I remember is agitate my chemical bottles because I had to heat up the chemicals a bit to get to 70F. My basement storage areas was 65F or so. This time I will not heat up my chemicals as I never did so before an simply pour into my graduated cylinder as normal.

I do not plan to abandon this thread and post my on-going results so that it may aid others down the road.

 

[RicardoD]

Progress update. Developed another roll of Shantou Era film. This time I filtered my fixer (couple of paper towels in the funnel) while pouring into my graduated cylinder to measure 500ml for my SS tank. I did try to examine my fixer prior to filtering and thought I saw tiny, tiny particulate in there. I also noticed one of my reels was coated in white powder so I cleaned it off. (not sure where that came from, evidence of problems from last time). I also increased the final water rinse flow and went a bit longer.

Anyway, success!!! Now am I down to my usual spots, specks and flecks of dust.