Dark band along the film edge...

MrFus

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I'm just scanning the roll that I shoot a few days ago, and I noticed a darker area on the edge of the film, this has not happened on any of the previous films that I developed but at the same time I used a different reel than the Paterson (samigon Multi-Format autofeed), moved from Cinestill D96 monobath to Ilford chemistry (DD-x) and Used HP5 Plus versus FP4 Plus that is what I have being using before...

So under all the changes its kind of hard for me to determine what was the problem...



I'm inclined to think that maybe I don't fully drained the tank before adding the stop bath and the few extra seconds that take me to drop the tank on the counter and pour the stop created the line... or maybe the edge of the film curled in against the reel creating a little "pocket" where the developer still on the film pooled and that created the band.

What do you think happened?
 

Sirius Glass

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The band comes from the film in the reel slit. I have it too, there is not a lot to stop it but it is not a problem, especially with 120 film.
 
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MrFus

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Sirius Glass said:
The band comes from the film in the reel slit. I have it too, there is not a lot to stop it but it is not a problem, especially with 120 film.
Click to expand...

I usually feed the film on the reels with the natural curl in reverse, but totally slip my mind on this one and as it was going fast and easy I just loaded it on curling to the inside of the reel, I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not... Next roll is going back to the paterson reel even if it's a pain to do in the dark!!
 
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MattKing

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The band corresponds to an area that is less developed, not more.
Most likely you didn't put enough developer in the tank.
Alternatively, the reel rode up the centre column, ending up partially above the developer.
I'm assuming a Paterson tank. What series, and what size?
 
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MrFus

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Paterson tank super system 4, its the one that fits 2 rolls of 35 or one 120... I'm sure that I prepared 500ml of developer and all got in to the tank, but now I'm questioning if I push the reel all the way down on the center piece while I was putting the whole tank together in the dark.... That could have left part of the film out of the chemicals!

Any way, should not be a lighter area on the negatives if it was because of the lack of developer?

The line is darker on my negatives so it should be a part on the film that got exposed to developer for longer compared with the other part of the film... Or maybe I'm wrong.
 
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MattKing

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This is cold comfort, but you won't be the first to have this happen to.
 

250swb

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My guess is not enough chemicals in the tank. And I'd advise against loading the film with a reverse curl, the emulsion will be pushed against the channels in the reel and while it may not affect the image area it is where your film type and numbers are pre-printed, so these won't be developed properly.

As an aside I think you are doing exactly the right thing by getting away from that dreadful Monobath developer.
 
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MrFus

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The monobath is good for introducing people to analog photography and for quick testing of camera functionality... On the long run classic film developing is more cost effective and opens another door to the experimental part of film photography...
 

MattiS

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I am a bit confused. You say there are dark areas on the film, but in your initial post you show dark areas in the positive.
With the dark area in the positive I agree with Matt in #4.
 
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MrFus

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MattiS said:
I am a bit confused. You say there are dark areas on the film, but in your initial post you show dark areas in the positive.
With the dark area in the positive I agree with Matt in #4.
Click to expand...

I'm a dumb... Yes you are correct, there is a light band on the negative and it turn as a dark band on positive, totally got my head backwards!
 

MattKing

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Sirius Glass

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I use more than enough chemicals to cover the film and the top reel. The edges in the grooves do not get enough of the chemicals on the emulsion side of the groove and it leaves the back line. I get that sometimes in the stainless steel tanks and on the Jobo reels in the Jobo Processor.
 

Andrew O'Neill

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I don't think the film was entirely under the developer, probably due to not enough of it in the tank. If the edge is uneven and slightly blurry, then that's probably what happened. Sadly, I see this from time to time from my students.
 
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