Film Developing Error or Camera malfunction?

[Christopher Lindsey]

Hi! So I developed 3 rolls today from my mamiya RZ67 and they came out black? but I could still see the frames on the film negatives as provided with the screenshots below? Ignore the dog hair and wrinkles as I proceeded to reveal my 3rd sheet of black film I furiously gripped the film negatives and threw them to my dog hair ridden floor lmao. BUT from the screenshot can any of you recognize this a film developing error or my camera messing up?

 

[koraks]

First thing that comes to mind is check the aperture on the lenses used to see if they close smoothly. I've had a few mamiya lenses in particular suffering from stiff apertures. They won't stop down reliably (or at all) before the mirror flips down and the shutter opens.

 

[Truzi]

Well, the camera did expose the film, otherwise you'd not have "frames" and everything would be uniform. Whether it had enough exposure is another question, as well as development.

We can better help if you tell us how you developed the film, how long you've been doing it, etc.

 

[Christopher Lindsey]

Hi! I developed the film in my bathroom. I soaked the film in my dark tank for 1 minute with 102degree water. Once poured, I threw the developer at 102.3 degrees for 3.5 minutes with 4 agitations every 30 seconds. After I used the blix for 6.5 minutes at 99.6 degrees with 4 agitations every 30 seconds. Then washed the film and added stabalizer. I've been developing film for around 1 month! So I'm roughly new to this. But I'm also new to medium format. So I'm still unsure what my issue was. I used my phone app for a light meter as well

 

[MattKing]

Welcome to Photrio.
It looks to me like like your camera's shutter is staying open too long, or the aperture is open too much.
Are there images under the over-exposure in the frames, or is it all blur?
If the latter, I would suspect the shutter.
Have you other lenses you can try, in order to rule out the shutter in the lens you used?

 

[Christopher Lindsey]

Welcome to Photrio.
It looks to me like like your camera's shutter is staying open too long, or the aperture is open too much.
Are there images under the over-exposure in the frames, or is it all blur?
If the latter, I would suspect the shutter.
Have you other lenses you can try, in order to rule out the shutter in the lens you used?

Hi thank you! It seems in one of my frames i can barely make an image out of the underpass I was shooting. I did try out a lens today ive never used before.

 

[foc]

As has been suggested, it appears to be a camera problem, not a processing one. If it was a processing problem then your frame numbers/edge markings wouldn't be so clear.
Can you remember what exposure you used, for say, the underpass shot? The shutter speed and the aperture?
From viewing your underpass frame, it would appear to me that the negative is grossly over-exposed. It could be a combination of the lens not stopping down and/or the shutter firing slower than the speed selected.

 

[Rudeofus]

Are you fully familiar with the handling of your new camera yet? It took me a while to turn this camera into a reliable work horse. Most likely this was either defective hardware or operator error, allow me to ask a few random questions:

1. If you remove the film magazine and put the magazine control lever to M, then set an exposure to one second and aperture two or three stops closed down: if you trigger an exposure, you should see the mirror going up, revealing the lens. You should be able to observe, how the shutter opens and closes, and you should see the aperture, while the shutter is open.
2. If the battery of an RZ67 is about to run out of juice, the camera will torment your soul with the strangest misbehavior. Make sure, that you have a reasonably fresh battery in your RZ67.

 

[Christopher Lindsey]

As has been suggested, it appears to be a camera problem, not a processing one. If it was a processing problem then your frame numbers/edge markings wouldn't be so clear.
Can you remember what exposure you used, for say, the underpass shot? The shutter speed and the aperture?
From viewing your underpass frame, it would appear to me that the negative is grossly over-exposed. It could be a combination of the lens not stopping down and/or the shutter firing slower than the speed selected.

Yeah, my light meter told me f11 and my shutter to be at 1/400. I was shooting with ektar 100 at around 5:30 pm.

 

[Christopher Lindsey]

Are you fully familiar with the handling of your new camera yet? It took me a while to turn this camera into a reliable work horse. Most likely this was either defective hardware or operator error, allow me to ask a few random questions:

1. If you remove the film magazine and put the magazine control lever to M, then set an exposure to one second and aperture two or three stops closed down: if you trigger an exposure, you should see the mirror going up, revealing the lens. You should be able to observe, how the shutter opens and closes, and you should see the aperture, while the shutter is open.
2. If the battery of an RZ67 is about to run out of juice, the camera will torment your soul with the strangest misbehavior. Make sure, that you have a reasonably fresh battery in your RZ67.

Im actually not familiar with this camera. I've had it for about a week now. I noticed the lens I'm using from the shoot the shutter would stay open. But I unknowingly flipped this switch when shooting? But messing with the camera now it seems that switch is causing my camera to expose until i trigger the next frame? Im pretty sure that might be the issue? Putting the switch back revealing the "N", is making the camera shutter act normal?

 

[MattKing]

Looks like you were using it in "T" mode - i.e. the shutter stays open until you move the switch or cock the camera and advance the film or (and you would need to ask the users of an RZ about this) trigger the electromagnetic release again.
That function is used for long time exposures.

 

[foc]

I think the T setting is your problem. (It is similar to B on a 35mm camera) It would very much overexpose the negative and cause image blur due to camera movement.

I am interested in your underpass lightmeter reading. F11 1/400sec for ISO100 film seems to be a very bright scene. (maybe my part of the world is not as bright!)

 

[Christopher Lindsey]

Looks like you were using it in "T" mode - i.e. the shutter stays open until you move the switch or cock the camera and advance the film or (and you would need to ask the users of an RZ about this) trigger the electromagnetic release again.
That function is used for long time exposures.

That definitely is the issue! Rookie mistakes smh

 

[Christopher Lindsey]

I think the T setting is your problem. (It is similar to B on a 35mm camera) It would very much overexpose the negative and cause image blur due to camera movement.

I am interested in your underpass lightmeter reading. F11 1/400sec for ISO100 film seems to be a very bright scene. (maybe my part of the world is not as bright!)

Yeah man i think it was just a rookie mistake on the lens lmao! BUT my area is really bright and harsh when it comes to lighting! My light meter app doesnt have 1/400 as an option for the shutter speed so to compensate i changed my aperture to f11 instead of the recommended f8 when it came down to the shot

 

[mtjade2007]

Could it be a blix failure? Is your blix fresh? I believe blix does not last very long although longer than the developer. If you have access to bleach and fixer (yes separate bleach and fix) chemicals just bleach and fix the negatives one more time. You can try a frame or two to see if it makes a difference to the negative.

 

[Christopher Lindsey]

Could it be a blix failure? Is your blix fresh? I believe blix does not last very long although longer than the developer. If you have access to bleach and fixer (yes separate bleach and fix) chemicals just bleach and fix the negatives one more time. You can try a frame or two to see if it makes a difference to the negative.[/QUOTE
I dont think its that old? I probably used about 7 rolls of film with this bottle of blix so far.

 

[mtjade2007]

If nothing is wrong with your camera then why not to cut a frame or two of your developed but problematic film and dip it into the blix for 10 minutes. Then you will know if the blix is weak. It will take you the most 30 minutes and you have nothing else to lose. Photo Engineers (PE) used to strongly oppose use of blix. He advised quite a few times to separate bleach and fix. I trust him that he was an expert in C-41 process.

 

[grat]

The edge markings are fine. His developer and blix are OK.

 

[mtjade2007]

The negative looks too dark. The fix looks incomplete to me.

 

[koraks]

The negative looks too dark. The fix looks incomplete to me.

The edge markings are fine. His developer and blix are OK.

 

[gone]

Definitely looks like a shutter issue (to me), or a meter that went wonky and lied about the exposures.

 

[Rudeofus]

The OP confirmed, that he resolved his issue in posting #13. I have no idea, why people still go on about BLIX failure ...

 

[mtjade2007]

If the OP had the lens set to T mode (shutter remained open until he cocked the shutter), probably each image would be black. He did get one good well focused image, didn't he? Is it likely even for a beginner to have shot 3 rolls of film without noticing that his shutter did not sound right? I had films processed with exhausted fix a few times. The film would come out much darker rather than half transparent. What will he lose for dipping a frame of the film in the blix for 10 minutes?

 

[Christopher Lindsey]

Hi!! I did resolve the issue! It turns out it was the T mode! Since I've done that my film has been coming out perfect!

 

[mtjade2007]

Thanks for the update.