Inconsistent grain on film negative.

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PaulN

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In the background I'm scanning in 5 rolls of film that I souped in Diafine last night, and I'm seeing some odd grain patterns. Towards the edges of the negative, the film has minimal grain and is nice and smooth. However, the other side of the negative has a lot of grain. I'm guessing that this has to do with agitation. Any thoughts if this is under or over agitation? In this case, my film was Delta 100 souped in Diafine.

As soon as I'm done scanning I'll try and post a pic or two that exemplifies this. My computer is too slow to scan, web browse, and photo shop at the same time..

-Paul
 
I did some research yesterday, and I think the problem is not agitation but reticulation. I've been having problems with my water being at the right temperature while washing/rinsing. I think the grain patterns are too large, and too consistent given the various types of film. Even some 6x6cm negatives had large grain clumps.

A large 5 gallon bucket of water for rinsing sounds like it would help with the temperature. The only problem is I have no room. How are others getting 70 degree water? Luck enough to have a temp. stable faucet?
 
Ive had this come up myself. I live in an old house and use the kitchen sink to develop. The problem comes in the wash usually. Make sure all your chemicals are the same Temp. When I wash I put a thermometer right in the developing tank and watch it very closely. If it fluctuates a few degrees here and there you'll be ok. You can keep your washing times lower by using fix remover. Here's an example of my own reticulation.
 
Reticulation is a funny beast. I know folks that have put ice water or _boiling_ water in at all stages of processing and not get it. Yet I hear of other folks using water with temperatures not approaching those extremes getting sever reticulation.

What film are you using?

Also, is your sharpness overall good in the areas without the grain?

Keep in mind that, other than the film's basic grain structure, grain is the result of overexposure, time and temperature in development. Agitation has virtually NO effect on grain.

allan
 
Use a non-hardening fixer life ilford Rapid fixer and you can greatly reduce washing times. Ilford's recommended wash if you use rapid fixer is:
Fill tank, invert 5 times, dump
Fill tank, invert 10 times, dump
Fill tank invert 20 times, dump, you're done.
I usually do a couple of extra 20 inversion cycles, but this method uses about a litre of water with a single tank and makes it easy to control the water temperature.

Peter
 
I never have stable temp while developing my negatives and my negatives are fine. I did see weird things when when my diafine got 'old' (I know its supposed to last forever, but mine was starting to look very very ugly) but I recently mixed up a new batch and things are looking good again.

My diafine is room temperature (which is magically 70 F) when I develop and the water is usually a little warmer (from the tap) than room temp (think 75 F or something). I also used to get strange looking results when I agitated. Now I dont agitate at all, just tap the tank a few times when I first pour in the chemicals to free any bubbles.
 
To keep the temp sort of stable, I fill a sink with water; all the chemistry and water are in ~500ml bottles and I put them in the water bath and then adjust the temp (it takes about 15 minutes). I use like 4 bottles of tap water and 1 bottle of distilled water (2 if using a one-shot dev). The temperature stays constant unless somebody starts the adjacent dishwashing machine :p
 
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