Film Developing Problems

[tiberno]

I just developed my fourth b&w film and still have some problems that I can't figure out what is causing them.
The biggest problem are some wavy stripes that can be seen in flatter, brighter areas of the pictures like in the sky. These stripes run parallel to each other during the length of the roll. Maybe that is due to unproper drying. I only hang the film there and don't use a squeegee because I don't have one.
The other problem is that the roll has a little burnt stripe in between and onto some negatives to others. Is that from a light leak on the camera?
The last problem which only happened with this last roll was a huge lost of transparency on the whole film. My printing exposure times went from 12 sec at f8 to 240 sec at f4.5!
I had an unopened old bottle of Ilfosol S which I used to develop that film and the developer was very dark, like strong tea, and the bottle also was a bit shrunk onto itself so that is probably the problem: bad developer. If that is the case why did the pictures developed at all?

Thanks for the help!

tiberno

 

[charjohncarter]

These questions are always hard to answer, but the lost transparency could be either bad fixer or bad developer.

The wavy areas could be uneven development caused by bad developer or improper agitation.

The burnt areas could be from film touching because of improper loading.

These are just other guesses so you should scan some of the problems and let us see.

 

[imokruok]

so that is probably the problem: bad developer. If that is the case why did the pictures developed at all?

Developer doesn't "turn," it just gets progressively bad, so even a developer that was improperly stored will likely still do something, but that something will be totally unpredictable.

 

[tiberno]

Thank you for the tips! In fact I do have problems with loading the film and I am not so sure on agitation.
Here goes one picture exemplary of the problems I was talking about. This was one of those which required 240sec at f4.5 of exposure.
On that crop you can see the wavy stripes I was talking about.
I should mention that the film I used is Rollei Retro 100.

Thank you guys for the help!

 

[charjohncarter]

I had a Leica with that problem and it turned out to be the shutter. If you want my photos: I'll send them.

 

[tiberno]

Many thanks for the reply!
I already found out were those wavy stripes come from: printing. I tried smother agitation and the stripes diminished. But this was with pearl paper - with glossy paper there are no stripes at all. Why is there pearl paper? It looks bad!! 😛
I also found out why the negative lost transparency (after two more wasted rolls!!), I mislabed the bottles and was probably using... old developer or wetting agent or something instead of fixer! :bang: lol 🙂

Again, thanks for helping!

best