So here's an interesting problem I encountered on the weekend. Finally processed the rolls I shot on my recent trip through canada, uk, nl and singapore. 6x 120 RVP50, 4x 135 RVP50, 4x 135 Provia100F (and 6x sheets of 4x5 RVP50 I found in a cupboard that turned out to be shot around Nov 2016 in Darwin of all places).
Anyway, 6 sheets up first in the Jobo 2509, all fine (except the colours from spending 3 years unrefrigerated in the cupboard).
Next up 2x120 and 1x135 in a Jobo 1500. They looked all fine (except for discovering my shutter on the 6x9 only fires half the time)
Then 2x135 in a shorter Jobo 1500 tank while the first lot of tanks and reels dried.
Another 2x120 and 1x135 in the longer 1500 tank. It was around here I started seeing the first problems.
Another lot of 2x120 and 1x135, and I could definitely see some weird streaking on the clear leaders of the 135 (which were on the bottom as they were hanging).
On some of the earlier rolls of 135 too, that had dried by then, was a whole lot of what looked liked dust the whole length of them.
After another set of rolls, when I did the 'Finger Squeegee' after the Stab, my hands (and the puddle in the bottom of the bathtub) looked like when I wash my hands after degreasing my bicycle. Just black gunk everywhere.
Strangest thing about it all is that all of the 120 films look fine. OK, there's no clear leader to show it up as obviously as the 135, but there were enough shots with sky and snowy Quebec City that should have shown at least something if there was a problem with them.
Took me ages to figure out what (I currently think) it was, I started off on the line of 'degraded film', 'rusty filmhangers', 'dodgy stab'; remixing a new batch of stab didn't help, and the film and hangers looked otherwise fine.
Eventually all I could think is that it looked like Remjet. Yes, I've done Cine film in C41 before, probably even in the same tanks. But that was at least 2-3 years ago, and I've done a few sets of both E6 and regular C41 since then with no problems.
Best guess I can come up with is that I somehow contaminated one or two of the reels with Remjet, and somehow haven't used that exact one since (I've got 6x 1500 reels) so it never washed off onto the film before?
But then why didn't it come off on the 120s? Why didn't it come off in the processing and regular washing? I do about double the regular recommended washes for all my E6 (8x 300ml Jobo beakers and 4x 1L of pre-warmed water, each refilled at least once makes at least 10L per set of films).
Is there something about E6 stab that somehow dissolved / dislodged it from the reels and that transferred it onto the films then?
I rereeled the lot of them and washed in just regular water (and re-stabbed) at least once each last night (for maybe 5-10 mins in the jobo), but the stab still looked a bit grey no matter how clean the washing water looked.
So anyway, I'm tempted to just try to wash it off with the usual washing soda (good thing I've got some of the good stuff for my caffenol), but just want to check with anyone who may know more, is this safe for E6? (I can't think why it wouldn't be, but there are some very good photos I don't want to ruin). Think I've done it for ECN but that's about it. Or just pecsol and pecpads?
And if it really was dried remjet stuck on the reels, will the washing soda just clean them up too?
Or the alternative is that it's not remjet that's somehow survived 3+ years on a somehow-unused reel. But then what else could it be? It's a tetenal 3-bath 2.5L kit, less than a year old, FD and CD1 bottles were filled with marbles since I did my first batch, everything mixed fresh yesterday. Can't think of anything else really besides remjet, but I'm open to suggestions...
Anyway, 6 sheets up first in the Jobo 2509, all fine (except the colours from spending 3 years unrefrigerated in the cupboard).
Next up 2x120 and 1x135 in a Jobo 1500. They looked all fine (except for discovering my shutter on the 6x9 only fires half the time)
Then 2x135 in a shorter Jobo 1500 tank while the first lot of tanks and reels dried.
Another 2x120 and 1x135 in the longer 1500 tank. It was around here I started seeing the first problems.
Another lot of 2x120 and 1x135, and I could definitely see some weird streaking on the clear leaders of the 135 (which were on the bottom as they were hanging).
On some of the earlier rolls of 135 too, that had dried by then, was a whole lot of what looked liked dust the whole length of them.
After another set of rolls, when I did the 'Finger Squeegee' after the Stab, my hands (and the puddle in the bottom of the bathtub) looked like when I wash my hands after degreasing my bicycle. Just black gunk everywhere.
Strangest thing about it all is that all of the 120 films look fine. OK, there's no clear leader to show it up as obviously as the 135, but there were enough shots with sky and snowy Quebec City that should have shown at least something if there was a problem with them.
Took me ages to figure out what (I currently think) it was, I started off on the line of 'degraded film', 'rusty filmhangers', 'dodgy stab'; remixing a new batch of stab didn't help, and the film and hangers looked otherwise fine.
Eventually all I could think is that it looked like Remjet. Yes, I've done Cine film in C41 before, probably even in the same tanks. But that was at least 2-3 years ago, and I've done a few sets of both E6 and regular C41 since then with no problems.
Best guess I can come up with is that I somehow contaminated one or two of the reels with Remjet, and somehow haven't used that exact one since (I've got 6x 1500 reels) so it never washed off onto the film before?
But then why didn't it come off on the 120s? Why didn't it come off in the processing and regular washing? I do about double the regular recommended washes for all my E6 (8x 300ml Jobo beakers and 4x 1L of pre-warmed water, each refilled at least once makes at least 10L per set of films).
Is there something about E6 stab that somehow dissolved / dislodged it from the reels and that transferred it onto the films then?
I rereeled the lot of them and washed in just regular water (and re-stabbed) at least once each last night (for maybe 5-10 mins in the jobo), but the stab still looked a bit grey no matter how clean the washing water looked.
So anyway, I'm tempted to just try to wash it off with the usual washing soda (good thing I've got some of the good stuff for my caffenol), but just want to check with anyone who may know more, is this safe for E6? (I can't think why it wouldn't be, but there are some very good photos I don't want to ruin). Think I've done it for ECN but that's about it. Or just pecsol and pecpads?
And if it really was dried remjet stuck on the reels, will the washing soda just clean them up too?
Or the alternative is that it's not remjet that's somehow survived 3+ years on a somehow-unused reel. But then what else could it be? It's a tetenal 3-bath 2.5L kit, less than a year old, FD and CD1 bottles were filled with marbles since I did my first batch, everything mixed fresh yesterday. Can't think of anything else really besides remjet, but I'm open to suggestions...
