HELP! (Part 2 of question about what might cause this)

How long is your pre-soak?

I think it's uneven development that occurs either at the very beginning or at the 30 minute mark. I've had my own uneven development problems in the past and have gone to 30sec continuous agitation at the start then 4 inversions at 1 min, 1min 30sec and 2 min. I'm not doing stand development though so it may not be appropriate for you.

Hi Matt,

Per your question - I do 4 minutes presoak. When the film is in the Rodinal, and light tight, I turn on the lights and the presoak tank water is darkish purple (as per usual).

So Matt, could you send me your "recipe" if it has helped you?

Any darkness on the film edges? I'd think a pattern like that could be light leakage in the ends of a loosely rolled film handled in bright light when changing rolls. I'm guessing those frames are last on the roll and therefore nearest the outside on the finished roll too. For this frivolous speculation to be correct, the rebate areas would also be black.

This is purely speculation and I could be totally off base, but wanted to encourage a broader investigation.

DaveT

That is my recipe, lots of agitation in the first 2 minutes. As I said though I don't use stand development.

Reading what the others have said they're probably right, loose roll or fogged during handling, does seem strange that it would intrude so far into the centre though.

Good point about the loosely rolled film. However, I generally change in shade (if not indoors, and the springs in the film holder keep the roll tight. As I mentioned, it went away for a while, but then has resurfaced. I have some slight blacking on the rebate edges of the film, but nothing that penetrates like these on the last two frames. Seals on film holder are new (including darkslide slot) as I have replaced them all myself.

I would opt for some kind of loose-roll exposure problem. It seems to me that if it were a developing problem it would appear on every roll if you are using the same technique. For the life of me, though, I cannot understand why someone would go to the folderal of stand development with Rodinal. The overall "sharpness" one gets with a non-solvent soup like Rodinal should not need the kinds of adjacency effects associated with such long development times. You might try simplifying your life by going to an old Bill Pierce standby of Rodinal 1:75 or 1:85, with normal agitation. My two cents.

John, Mount Vernon, Virginia USA

I see this kind of thing every day in my lab, usually from rolls shot in Holga cameras but this thing defiantly happens with loosely rolled films.

~steve
The Lighthouse Lab

Try replacing the light seals on your film back(s). I highly doubt it's your processing.

This looks very like the problem I had with the last roll in my Agfa Isolette I. Seems I may have a loose roll as well. What is worrying is that like you I was careful about loading in shade and thought that on removal from the camera I had rolled the film tightly. I did the usual bellows check with a torch and could see no pinholes.

The problem is that I can't decide what I need to change in my loading and unloading procedure to avoid the problem. So next time the problem may disappear or not as the case may be.

The uncertainty is unsettling to say the least.

pentaxuser

Yes, looks like a light leak, no reason to suspect processing. Doesn't ahve to be a "loose" roll, more likely to be a leak in the camera back if it is happening on more than one roll.