Hey all, I've encountered a strange problem with my last batch of C-41 negatives, where I'm seeing weird flecks of some semi-transparent contaminant all over the scans. When I look at the film itself, I see what looks like bits of reflective material on the emulsion side. One interesting aspect of these flecks is that they seem to be mostly limited to the 35mm rolls I processed, and only appear in small numbers on the 120 rolls I had in the same batch. This occurred on 3 different rolls, all different emulsions purchased at different time (the example photo is Portra 800), and stored in a freezer. I have a few guesses as to what this is, but I'm wondering if anyone else has encountered something similar.
Here is an example image:
And an enlargement of some of the marks:
Some details about my process:
I use a Jobo ATL-1 to process the negatives with Kodak's Flexicolor chemistry. I mix all of my chemicals with distilled water and use the developer one-shot. I use a stop bath between the developer and bleach, and I re-use the stop, bleach, fixer and final rinse a few times before discarding. I run process control strips, and the strip in this batch actually indicated near-perfect development, less than -0.05 density deviation from the comparison strip for any of the measurements. I've been running film through this process for over a year now, around 300 rolls of 35mm and 120, and this problem has only cropped up recently.
Some guesses about the cause:
1) Some sort of contamination from the rinse water. I don't use distilled water for rinsing, so it's possible there's something in the rinse water that would cause this. These don't look like water marks to me, however.
2) Incomplete bleach or fixing. The flecks are reflective, which makes we wonder of the fixer or bleach was retained in spots. The leak in the canister could have resulted in a diluted bleach or fix, though strangely it had no effect on the developer, as evidenced by the process control strip. This is my leading theory given that the 120 rolls weren't affected as much. They have less surface area than the 35mm, and it's possible the weakened chemicals completed more of the process as a result.
3) ECN-2 remjet contamination. I think this is unlikely as I've done a fair bit of ECN-2 in this processor without problems, I always rinse everything thoroughly (including the feed lines) with clean water after running ECN-2 film, and the marks don't really look like remjet, but I thought I'd mention the possibility.
4) Some sort of precipitate or contamination in one of the chemicals. Not really sure how to narrow this down. I use distilled water to mix all of my chemicals, and swap them out on a regular basis (once every 4 or 5 sessions).
If anyone has encountered something similar, I'd be interested to hear about it.
Here is an example image:
And an enlargement of some of the marks:
Some details about my process:
I use a Jobo ATL-1 to process the negatives with Kodak's Flexicolor chemistry. I mix all of my chemicals with distilled water and use the developer one-shot. I use a stop bath between the developer and bleach, and I re-use the stop, bleach, fixer and final rinse a few times before discarding. I run process control strips, and the strip in this batch actually indicated near-perfect development, less than -0.05 density deviation from the comparison strip for any of the measurements. I've been running film through this process for over a year now, around 300 rolls of 35mm and 120, and this problem has only cropped up recently.
Some guesses about the cause:
1) Some sort of contamination from the rinse water. I don't use distilled water for rinsing, so it's possible there's something in the rinse water that would cause this. These don't look like water marks to me, however.
2) Incomplete bleach or fixing. The flecks are reflective, which makes we wonder of the fixer or bleach was retained in spots. The leak in the canister could have resulted in a diluted bleach or fix, though strangely it had no effect on the developer, as evidenced by the process control strip. This is my leading theory given that the 120 rolls weren't affected as much. They have less surface area than the 35mm, and it's possible the weakened chemicals completed more of the process as a result.
3) ECN-2 remjet contamination. I think this is unlikely as I've done a fair bit of ECN-2 in this processor without problems, I always rinse everything thoroughly (including the feed lines) with clean water after running ECN-2 film, and the marks don't really look like remjet, but I thought I'd mention the possibility.
4) Some sort of precipitate or contamination in one of the chemicals. Not really sure how to narrow this down. I use distilled water to mix all of my chemicals, and swap them out on a regular basis (once every 4 or 5 sessions).
If anyone has encountered something similar, I'd be interested to hear about it.