E6 developing issue, brownish stain

[Lughmatic]

Hello all,

I'm facing an issue (just happened with a couple of rolls) while developing with the Tetenal E6 kit.
I've used this kit without problems in tens of rolls, thing's that are ok "for sure" : Temperature (controlled through a roner/sous vide) , chemicals dilution x+x (used this chems with other 2 rolls, good results), agitation (followed same process with all rolls).

There's like a brownish stain in the middle of the film wich goes from the start to the end covering all the photos (it's more visible in the lighter ones)
You can see it clearly in the strip piece that remains out of the canister and remains all-exposed :

This is a general view of the 2 rolls to show that the stain is there for both in the same way (so I discard a chemical levels issue, I was using 100ml more than the required anyway...) ... and yes, I hang my film in the shower 😀 :

Anyone with experience in an issue similar to mine?

Edit: Forgot to mention, there were shot with 2 different cameras during different days so no camera problem at first sight.

Tips wellcome 🙂
Thanks RFF!!

 

[Corran]

Your pics don't work due to Photobucket.

But my guess is you need to put it back into the BLIX for longer.

 

[Lughmatic]

Your pics don't work due to Photobucket.

But my guess is you need to put it back into the BLIX for longer.

Thanks for the heads up Corran! I've changed the image hosting.

You're right about the BLIX, it seems it could be the blix time, but (from my ignorance) what about this brown stain in the start?

 

[Corran]

The BLIX is both a bleach, and fix. The bleach is to bleach out the silver image after the reversal process. I have never seen that kind of brown stain myself, but from here it seems like the silver image is not bleached out.

I have developed hundreds of rolls/sheets of E-6 and C-41 in Tetenal kits, as well as other first dev / color dev / blix kits and never seen it myself, but sometimes, especially after a lot of rolls, a very light amount of stain remains so I tend to BLIX more than suggested. The BLIX will not hurt anything unless you leave it in there for like hours.

I also see you are diluting the strength - this is something I have done in the past too, but it's not recommended and personally I suggest you avoid that and simply put back into the bottles when finished, and use up till the exhaustion point.

 

[sevo]

Blix has poor storage properties, and turns stale after some weeks - you may have exceeded its (mixed) shelf life. If it depletes ahead of the developer, try to store it in open bottles - as a rare exception from the rule, blix needs oxygen! Professional scale processors with a blix stage explicitly aerate it (blowing compressed air into the blix tank), the even more professional ones avoid it altogether and go for separate bleach and fix.

 

[Ronald M]

Poor agitation replenishes edges, not the center.

3 step kits give garbage color compared to 6.

 

[Lughmatic]

Thanks for this valuable info Corran, I really appreciate it.

I also see you are diluting the strength - this is something I have done in the past too, but it's not recommended and personally I suggest you avoid that and simply put back into the bottles when finished, and use up till the exhaustion point.

I've for sure explained it badly (sorry for my english) I just meant that I've followed the mixing instructions for the initial preparations.

And the most important... I've put again the film in blix again (there're no important photos so why not to try?) and the stain through all the roll has dissapeared...

I don't know if this is the proper workaround, but it worked at least this time!! Probably I've made a mistake with the blix times or it's more exhausted than I believe.

Thanks again! you save some decent photos 😀

 

[Corran]

Glad to hear it. There's no real problem with re-blixing the film, same as re-fixing b&w.

3 step kits give garbage color compared to 6.

I've seen this stated many times with no sources and no credibility. I don't believe it makes a significant difference, except maybe in some cases issues with extreme longevity. Since that doesn't bother me I am just fine with the 3 bath kit. I have developed lots and seen no significant issues with color.