Spots on every negative in my latest developed roll.

einszwei7

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Mar 11, 2018
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Hi,

i just developed a roll of Kentmere 400 and every negative has black spots all over it, some more, some less.

This is a 100% Crop of one of the scans:

100cropl9qrp.jpg


I developed in Rodinal 1+50, 20 Minutes, agitating every minute. Then used tap-water as my stopping bath and Adox Adofix for ~5 mins and hanged it in the laundry room to dry.

I have different theories what it could be:
-Film got "stuck" halfway during putting it into the development spool, i had to take it back out and touched the roll (should give a different pattern than this i guess?)
-dust on the roll (however that could have happened)
-residue in the fixer? I used the ilford method to wash the film after fixing, the fixer has some residue in it though, how do you deal with this?

Being on a budget, i don't really want to waste another roll just to see if it happens again / if i can fix it.

Have you had similar results and possibly know how it is caused?

I have only developed around ~10 rolls so fat (all Agfa APX 100 except this one and all came out clean, the fixer was used for the second time in this roll)

The lens ( Olympus XA) is clean as can be.

Thanks in advance

edit: here are 2 additional examples: https://abload.de/img/spieghel5qoh0.jpg
https://abload.de/img/64fobt.jpg
 
I'll add to the list of your 3 theories: glass on the scanner is dirty.

These were scanned with a nikon d5300 and a 45mm macro lens(not even mine), as is said, i am on a budget :eek:

You can filter the fixer, I've heard of people using coffee filters.

that actually sounds like a very logical way to do it, i just hope the fixer won't dissolve the filter
 
These were scanned with a nikon d5300 and a 45mm macro lens(not even mine), as is said, i am on a budget :eek:
...

Dust on the surface of the lightbox used during the "scan" can produce this type of result if you are foolish enough to place it close to the film so that its surface is reasonably in focus.
 
Dust on the surface of the lightbox used during the "scan" can produce this type of result if you are foolish enough to place it close to the film so that its surface is reasonably in focus.

my "lightbox" is my tablet on full screen-brightness and an about:blank webpage open, 5-10cm behind the negative :eek:
 
I have different theories what it could be:
-Film got "stuck" halfway during putting it into the development spool, i had to take it back out and touched the roll (should give a different pattern than this i guess?)
-dust on the roll (however that could have happened)

I can see some fibres -- what clothes were you wearing during that procedure? Something apparently fell off your sleeves, I guess.
 
From looking at the other examples i would guess dust/fibers etc in the laundry room got on your negs whilst drying.

I have noticed large differences in the amount of dust on my negs from day to day when I used to use a spare, carpeted room. The amount of time hanging, time to drying and the properties of the film may also vary which might also result in more or less dust on your negs.

I hang mine in the shower every time now, having recently run the hot water to reduce airborne dust. It has helped.

I also reuse fixer and haven't noticed a similar problem from that.
 
Every time I reuse film fix, similar happens.

They go right through coffee filters. You need pro filter paper. Fisher Scientific.

I reuse fixer as first fix or for trial prints. Problem gone.
 
So for the next time ill make sure i filter my fixer before i pour it into the canister and i hang the negatives in the shower to dry to minimize dust.

Thanks for your answers everyone!
 
Fixer? What about washing the film after fixing and drying conditions?

I don’t know about your laundry room but mine has a clothes dryer with lint that seems to find a place most anywhere to rest, collecting all over in the room. Just cleaning out the screen on the dryer between loads puts a few particles that like to float around. Matter of fact, I clean the condenser coil on my refrigerator that’s upstairs, once a year and by golly there is a fair amount of dryer lint I vacuum up with my trusty Shop Vac. My frig is 32 years old and works just fine. But that’s another story.

Besides these specks could easily be removed in Photoshop.

At any rate, could be several causes.
 
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