Strange results: Tri-X in Rodinal

[dufffader]

Normally I would be using Tri-x 35mm rolls and develop it in Rodinal 1+50 and I find 14:00 at 20C to my liking.

Recently I moved to 100ft reels of Tri-X (400TX) loaded into IXMOO cassettes, and had 4 rolls of it shot over a 1 week period with a metered Leica M6 (for which exposures measurements are normally right on). During the same week I had 4 6 more rolls of different film and they were fine.

I developed these 4 rolls of reel Tri-X using my standard timing, but the results were less than pleasing. All 4 negatives came out very thick, darker than normal when held up to sight. It looks as thought it was overdeveloped. The sprocket areas were thick as well, and through troubleshooting, I ruled out issues with my fixer.

Most of the scans were useless. The ones that were close to fine tells me that it is at least 3 stops over and extremely grainy.

While I'm about to do tests to find out the issue, wondering if anyone has some idea what the issue is:
- Can it be that reel Tri-X have different development times? Its a fresh reel that is not past its expiry date. I would guess this is unlikely.
- I'm about to shoot a test roll with +3 to -3 stop exposure. Might also try and cut 4mins out of the development time, i.e. 10mins @ 20C Rodinal 1+50. Any other suggestions?
- If it was indeed overdevelopment the first time around, should I be seeing thick film around the sprockets as well (outside the areas normally exposed)?

Thanks. I plan to do the tests this weekend.

 

[Keith]

I'm amazed that you've been using Rodinal 1+50 for 14 mins at 20deg. I would never go over 10 mins personally and have discovered that 8 mins seem adequate a lot of the time. I've used Tr-X from a 100ft reel and boxed individual rolls and haven't noticed any difference in my results.

I get my best scans when the negatives are a little thin and usually subtract around twenty percent from the times recommended on the Digital Truth charts.

 

[Al Kaplan]

I'd suspect that some kind of radiation has fogged the film. X-rays perhaps? Maybe it was stored under high heat? My experience with bulk Tri-X shows it to be no different than factory loads.

 

[adrianzg]

that's strange. i've been alternating between bulk reel tri-x and factory loaded tri-x and they seem fine, no differences at all. i've been using rodinal 1:100 + ilfosol 1:100 stand development for about 25min at 25degC fix 6 minutes, film exposed at 400, no problems at all.

were the 4 rolls processed together in the same tank or separately?

could the whole reel have fogged?

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

A) The whole reel is fogged, or B) You fogged it while loading...

By the way, your times are close to mine: I rate it at 400 ASA (200 with yellow filter) for shadows or overcast scenes and develop it on Rodinal 1:50 20ºC for 18 minutes / every minute three inversions. For sunny scenes I rate it at 100 ASA (50 with yellow filter) and 14 minutes with three inversions every three minutes... (Incident metering)

Good luck with that reel!

Cheers,

Juan

 

[Roger Hicks]

Bad (hot) storage leaps out as the likeliest candidate. Have you had good results from any of the bulk-loaded rolls?

Mis-mixing the dev comes next. Or, as Adrian says, fog.

Cheers.

R.

 

[dufffader]

I'll see if my fresh test rolls are fine this weekend. I carried them for a week in hot weather, so that could put heat as an issue. The other rolls I had with me are Neopan 1600s, ERA 100, and assortment of colour negatives, and those were fine. IXMOO plus heat might be a no-no.

 

[bmattock]

I use 12 minutes at 1:50 (using EI400) and yes it's grainy, but makes lovely images. 14 is probably too long.

My thought as well. I've done from 10 1/2 minutes to 12 minutes. 14 just seems a lot at that temp for the film at box speed.

 

[Larry Manuel]

>The sprocket areas were thick as well

That is a clue that something other than developing is amiss, is it not? I wouldn't worry about using IXMOOs. Those have been around forever, with no complaints that I've found.

 

[charjohncarter]

Did you set the proper ISO on you camera? I've used 14 minutes and they were not of the map.

 

[Uncle Fester]

If I'm reading the original post correctly, only the bulk loaded rolls were affected. It sounds like you might have a light leak somewhere along the line in your loading process or in the cassettes themselves.

 

[dufffader]

Yes, I'm suspecting improper loading techniques. Thanks for helping with the troubleshooting, guys.