Oh noble Jedi Council (selfdev woes)..

[sheepdog]

Over the last few rolls, I have seen a problem arise. Faint(ish) stripes of alternating darker and brighter fields are covering my films. Stocks I have used the last times include Tri-X, Tmax, Delta 3200. I have used a couple of different dillutions of Rodinal (both freshly mixed and re-heated). Everything is 35mm and I use a Paterson 2-reel system with plastic reels.

The stripes show up across the film, all the way from edge to edge in exposed and unexposed areas. I usually agitate by inverting the tank, and have tried adjusting the amount of agitation without seeing any large difference in the striping. I have tried both with adequate and ample (325ml and 500ml) amounts of developer. I stop by filling the tank with water and dumping it 3-5 times.

The bare negatives:
http://kjetil.philosophi.net/gallery/loupe.php?image=335&hide=1

Faint stripes in a scanned image:
http://kjetil.philosophi.net/gallery/loupe.php?image=10&lens=22&hide=1

Are there any known causes, or should I simply stop developing in the same water with which we feed our zebras? :angel:

Kind regards
Kjetil

 

[sheepdog]

I was afraid of something along those lines. I've fixed around 15-20 rolls (I have no clue) in this batch of fix (Agefix), and I always thought I could compensate for worn fixer with increasing the time (have gone from 5 via 6 to 8 minutes). I'll mix fresh fixer for the next roll, and update this thread if I find immediate improvement. Thanks!

Kind regards
Kjetil

 

[FrankS]

Good news: if it IS a fixing problem, you can simply refix them (in fresh fixer.) Try it with a single strip of negs that show this problem and see what happens.

 

[kaiyen]

Fixer is saturated with silver at some point so you can't just add more time indefinitely to get adequate fixing. Though 15-20 rolls isn't much for even a liter of fixer (you should get close to 30), that sounds like the culprit. What confuses me, though, is the regular pattern.

allan

 

[titrisol]

The regular pattern is confusing, looks like a light leak
It may alos be a fixing problem, to test your fixer, keep the leaders of the 35mm film and drop on ein the solution.
It should go clear in about 45 secs if it is much more than tht (say 90 or 100) get fresh fixer.

You can refix the already washed negatives

 

[Xmas]

Have you flown, like air travel, Xrays give funny patterns?

If you want to be frugal with fixer, use the two bottle approach and weak plain hypo. Instead of bottled >>$ fast fix. The weak hypo is for optimal speed, about 40% is best.

Fix in used solution pour back in same bottle, final fix in 2nd bottle, when still milky after first fix discard first and mix up fresh batch, interchange bottles. Fixing almost free this way and archival, if you wash for longer.

Someone will now explain better then me

Noel

 

[sheepdog]

Thanks, guys!

Mixed new fixer and put one strip through. It cleared up real nice, and if I'm ever bored the next couple of weeks, I'll do the rest of the keeper strips I've been neglecting..

In the process, however, I managed to drop one plastic reel. Plastic reels famously don't break or bend out of shape, but the thermometer I had lying around where it hit, broke in two nice halves. Glad I have a photo-gear import service 30sec from my front door 🙂

Thanks again and have a nice evening!

Kjetil