Earlier this evening, I processed a 35mm roll (36 exp) of Kodak TMax 100, in Claytons F76+. The entire roll came out blank, no edge markings, but evidence of halation dye during the rinse cycle.
My first thought: bad developer: I applied a drop of the developer I had used to the leader belonging to this roll, and got the big black dot—assuming that the developer is okay.
My process is pretty established, I prepare solutions in “reverse order,” meaning HCA first, then fixer, then stop, finally developer—which in this case was a matter diluting the prepared developer, 1 + 9 to distilled water. It’s pretty unlikely that I’d confuse fixer for developer as the fixer has already been prepared and is sitting in the queue.
I clearly saw evidence of the anti-halation dye during the various pours between stages of development. I fixed for about 4:30 in freshly mixed Claytons Rapid Fix, diluted per instruction.
I completed the wash cycle, went to hang the film and to my surprise the roll is totally blank—no markings of any kind.
I checked the camera’s shutter and it appears to work normally (all of my cameras had been recently CLA’d—but it’s worth checking anyway). That said, I’ll put a roll of Kentmere through it tomorrow and process with the same chemistry I used this evening … as a sanity check.
Naturally, I’m interested in any additional tests or hypotheses others might be able provide.
My first thought: bad developer: I applied a drop of the developer I had used to the leader belonging to this roll, and got the big black dot—assuming that the developer is okay.
My process is pretty established, I prepare solutions in “reverse order,” meaning HCA first, then fixer, then stop, finally developer—which in this case was a matter diluting the prepared developer, 1 + 9 to distilled water. It’s pretty unlikely that I’d confuse fixer for developer as the fixer has already been prepared and is sitting in the queue.
I clearly saw evidence of the anti-halation dye during the various pours between stages of development. I fixed for about 4:30 in freshly mixed Claytons Rapid Fix, diluted per instruction.
I completed the wash cycle, went to hang the film and to my surprise the roll is totally blank—no markings of any kind.
I checked the camera’s shutter and it appears to work normally (all of my cameras had been recently CLA’d—but it’s worth checking anyway). That said, I’ll put a roll of Kentmere through it tomorrow and process with the same chemistry I used this evening … as a sanity check.
Naturally, I’m interested in any additional tests or hypotheses others might be able provide.