Fogged film and Xtol

[Thomas Bertilsson]

I have read here before, I swear it, that Xtol is a slightly fog-supressing developer. Is that true?
One a recent trip to the Minnesota Lake Superior North Shore, I brought a batch of APX 25 film that I had tested prior to leaving in Sprint developer. Then I came home and developed a couple of rolls in Pyrocat. Fog and problems with streaking from the paper backing.
So I developed a roll in Sprint, then one in Rodinal. Same results. So today I bought a package of Xtol to try since I've seen it working very cleanly before. You think it might help some, or should I try to lay my hands on some benzotriazole?

Very thankful for information. I have five rolls I'd like to save as much as possible since the trip was both a rare occasion as well as a lot of hard work to get all those shots.

Thanks,

- Thomas

 

[waynecrider]

There's nothing mentioned in the Film D Cookbook about it being so although there is a little blurb about reducing alkalinity instead of going for a restrainer. Xtol works as low as a PH 8.2 according to the book. There's also Pinacryptol Yellow, but it's not rec'd for tabular films. Two others are bromide and iodide with iodide supposedly superior to bromide. BZT is quoted as being used primarily in high PH solutions which contain Phenidone.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Well, interestingly, the first test film came out squeaky clean without the problems I've been plagued with so far. Perhaps it's due to the film rather than the developer. But I'm going to put the rest of the rolls through and see if I'm lucky or not. This is the best sign I've had since I started developing these.
- Thomas

 

[Rolleijoe]

fogged film/X-tol

I have read here before, I swear it, that Xtol is a slightly fog-supressing developer. Is that true?

Very thankful for information. I have five rolls I'd like to save as much as possible since the trip was both a rare occasion as well as a lot of hard work to get all those shots.

Thanks,

- Thomas

When I used X-tol about 8 years ago, with Tri-X (always stopped in at B&H to purchase about once a week), I got some severely fogged "generic" Tri-X (not the USAR stuff), and X-tol was no help at all in saving those images.

Why not call Kodak 800-242-2424-x19 and get the answer direct from the horse's mouth?

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Thanks Joe, that's probably what I should have done.

Anyway, the streaks on the negs are irrepairable. I think I'll have to use evil digital technology to make new negatives out of them to be able to print them. I'll go over to hybrid forum to get this rolling.
The problem is that the paper backing has leaked light, or a chemical reaction was induced somehow. It's weird, because the negs were stored in the same way as my APX100 and APX400 from the same trip, which all came out fine.

Anyway, I know what I have to do. No developer could have saved me. I compared some negs developed in Rodinal, Spring, Pyrocat, and now in Xtol, and the markings were the same on both. But that's OK. They have excellent tonality and resolution, so this might be a good opportunity to learn contact printing with dig negs. But I'd better take it out of this forum before one of the moderators kicks it in that direction...

Thanks for your time everybody.

- Thomas