Thin Pink Negatives - including numbers

[doolittle]

I just finished developing a roll of TriX, rated at 400 asa, in Rodinal 1:25 for 7 minutes (normal agitation cycle).
The negatives have come out very thin, including the manufacturer imprinted frame numbers. Also a slight pink cast to the negatives.
It was re-used fixer, which had been sitting for a few weeks. It seemed to clear the leader in a reasonable time, but I am thinking it was exhausted.
The Rodinal concentrate was the end of a bottle, and had also been sitting some time (though from past experience I have found it keeps well).

Would exhausted fixer result in thin negatives? I initially thought underexposure, but then the frame numbers should still come out right (as they are pre-exposed from the factory).

Is there any point re-fixing the negatives - will it improve them at all, or just help their longevity?

 

[kbg32]

Seems like your developer was exhausted or you didn't process the film long enough. Exhausted fixer might result in the "pink" cast of your film.

 

[seblock]

I think it is the rest of the Rodinal that went bad and didnt develop the film correctly. Afaik poor developed frame numbers and/or brand writing is a clear sign for that. Happened to me some time before.

If your fixer would be exhausted, it would not have resolved all the silver halide from the film base, thus the film would show a kind of foggy brownish veil over the film, like so

Exhausted fixer

How long has the Rodinal be openend? And how about the fixer, how many films has it seen already? However, re-fixing film is no problem, just rinse and dry afterwards as usual. I do it every time my fixer turns bad 🙂

cheers
seb

 

[doolittle]

Thanks for the advice.

Re-fixing got rid of the pink cast.

Looks like the rodinal was off. It was the end of a bottle which had been opened for longer than I care to remember, and I just got the required 22ml out of it.

Lesson learned! Hopefully the scans are half way salvageable.

 

[j.scooter]

Is there a general consensus on the shelf life of an open bottle of Rodinal?

 

[doolittle]

I thought the answer was 'forever'!

From googling it seems the formula for rodinal has been modified over the years and longevity is no longer assured.