delta's 100 white specks

[sbelyaev]

Delta 100 was developed in Xtol 1+1. (image and 100% crop are attached)
Are these white specks typical for this particular combination?
I used to develop Delta 100 in Rodinal and DDX and have never observed anything like this.
Thank you.

 

[nickandre]

AFAIK that looks like reticulation. I've also gotten funky things when I overdeveloped T-Grain films like Tmax and Delta. If it's not working, I would try something else because that's kind of nasty looking.

 

[Photo Engineer]

That is not reticulation. IDK what it is, but I know what it is not.

PE

 

[Ihmemies]

At least some of my color negatives, depending on brand, are full of similar spots. Some slide film has them too, but they're black instead. Digital ICE while scanning removes them, but I still have no idea what they are :I

I doubt they'll show up while printing or projecting though.

 

[Ray Rogers]

Delta 100 was developed in Xtol 1+1. (image and 100% crop are attached)
Are these white specks typical for this particular combination?
I used to develop Delta 100 in Rodinal and DDX and have never observed anything like this.
Thank you.

How do the white spots behave?
Do they always remain, irrespective of surrounding density, or do they finally develop (blacken) up in the D-max areas?

 

[TimVermont]

So they are actually black spots on the negative, white when reversed out on a positive print or scan? Any chance you have dried fixer crusted on your equipment someplace? If you have a JoBo with a lift, check the filler tube in the lift. (You can guess why I know this....Presoaking makes it worse, more flakes will adhere) Otherwise check the lips/seals/rims of all your dev equipment and reels for dried crusties.

 

[clayne]

So they are actually black spots on the negative, white when reversed out on a positive print or scan? Any chance you have dried fixer crusted on your equipment someplace? If you have a JoBo with a lift, check the filler tube in the lift. (You can guess why I know this....Presoaking makes it worse, more flakes will adhere) Otherwise check the lips/seals/rims of all your dev equipment and reels for dried crusties.

Had a similar thing happen to me a while back with ACROS in Rodinal: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

What it ended up being was similar to what Tim said - dried particulate matter in the developer.

 

[Alex Bishop-Thorpe]

I dont know about yours, but my Xtol has a habit of developing some white floaty "stuff" after a while stored away. I havent a clue what it is, but to my memory it left me with similar effects. Have a peek in your bottle of stock Xtol and see if there's anything floating in it. To me it looks like stuff that's gotten stuck in/onto your film, of course any particle that blocks light will show up as white when printed/scanned.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Well, I've said it before, and I'll say it again......

Partiulate matter in any photographic processing solution can create problems. If that is the case here, you see the manifestation of the problem.

PE

 

[Mahler_one]

Ron-would filtering the solutions help, or not worth the trouble? Just make up new solutions....are some developers more prone to throw sediment?

EM

 

[aleckurgan]

I always thought it's an attribute of a sertain emulsion type (or emulsion/developer combination) sinse I have this kind of issue only with AGFA films (APX100 and Rollei IR400). I use one shot DDX 1+4 and I'm pretty sure it has nothing extra inside, no flakes or crust. All other films that I used/use never had anything like this.

 

[Brandon D.]

No, it's not normal. That's the combination I use, and this has never happened in my experience.

How old is the batch of XTOL you're using? And has that batch been exposed to a lot of air?

I've noticed white, flakey residue on all of the darkroom equipment I used to mix/handle XTOL. Obviously, the equipment can be cleaned off. But it just goes to show that when XTOL is left out in the air for a while, it dries up into a white, flakey substance.

If this was me, I'd carefully mix a new, fresh batch of XTOL, and I would do another developing test to see if the roll comes out clean. First, though, I'd thoroughly wash all of my darkroom equipment to make sure that there isn't any contamination (of dried up XTOL) being transfer into any of my processing steps.

 

[Ronald Moravec]

Take a look at the used film fix some and observe the black flecks at the bottom of the bottle. This is silver that has precipitated out of solution from being removed from the previous film.

It is impossible to filter and is impossible to wash off the new film with water. After drying, forget it.

I NEVER use used fix for film. I finish it off with test prints.

I have tried every home filtering I can think of and the problem remains to some degree. Use glass bottles and rinse thourghly before making a new batch of one time use fix.

This has nothing to do with developer unless you cross contaminated developer in a fix bottle.

As photo engineer said, any debris is potential problem. I filter everything including wash water and when I learned this, all the problems went away.

Get an air filter while you are at it so there is no stuff floating in the air where you dry film.

Then put away the spoting brushes.

 

[Tom Stanworth]

white specks on prints tend to be debris that dried on the film. Can be dissololved minerals or anything airborne like smoke particles, anti-perspirant etc. Try re-soaking, gently removing the debris with your finger tips by stroking teh film and re-drying if indeed you can see stuff stuck to the film.