Fomadon R09 Blue/green hue?

[rydolan]

Yesterday I began developing my 120 roll film in Fomadon R09. and I have a couple questions about it. I mixed a dilution of 1:50 by the way.

In the past I have developed only a handfull of times (using an Ilford developer, maybe Ilfosol?), but with no real problems. Just followed the rules and directions and everything went fine. The same went for last night, with one exception: my film came out with a blueish/green hue to it. It even stained my developer blue/green when I was pouring it out after the developer stage.

Was this the antihalation layer dyes that I have read about? In the past, with the same exact film but a different developer, the film has looked quite clear, as in it had no coloration to the transparent areas of the film when developed.

Does R09 cause film to have a blueish tint? Or did I not rinse my film enough possibly? (I use the Ilford methon od rinsing, at least I think thats what it is called.)

The negatives seemed to scan rather nicely, so I don't know if the blue tint is a problem or not.

Curious if you guys have any experience with this and could shed some light on it.

 

[Jerevan]

Yes, the developer can come out coloured, no worries. As you say, it is the anti-halation layer. I try to be careful to not overuse the fixer and rinse well. That has solved any problems with the tint thus far for me.

 

[hacked - sepiareverb]

I use a pre-wash with photoflo before developing for films with strongly colored anti-halation coatings. This comes out blue, green, pink or whatever color and the films have less staining when done. Hypo-clear also sometimes seems to reduce the staining from these coatings as well.

 

[rydolan]

I use a pre-wash with photoflo before developing for films with strongly colored anti-halation coatings.

I thought it wouldn't hurt to try a pre-wash of water and it seemed to help a bit, but there was still a definite coloration to the film. I'm thinking that my batch of fixer is probably getting tired and I'm not rinsing well enough. I just developed some Acros since posting my question and I noticed that I had to rinse the film about twice as many times (as in twice as many tankfulls of water with 20 agitations) to get rid of the pink coloration in the water that I was pouring out.

Thanks for the info.

 

[polyglot]

What was the film? Foma films in 120 have a blue plastic base whereas other manufacturers have clear or frosty-looking bases.

Strongly coloured dyes coming out in a pre-wash is normal but it's not necessary to pre-wash most films. Most developers will eat the dyes and come out relatively clear, while Rodinal seems to just wash them out so it often comes out strongly coloured.

You might want to have a read through the FAQ in my signature.

 

[jb17kx]

The colours you get from Rodinal/Adonal/R09 are one of the thrills of using it

Fomapan 100 turns Rodinal a lovely bright green (and as Polyglot points out, the base is meant to be blue).
T-MAX 400 and APX 100 give a deep purple, whereas T-MAX 100 is more pink.
Most Ilford films don't change the colour at all, and there's one film I can't remember that gives Rodinal a horrifying fresh-stop-bath yellow colour.

Certain films do need stronger fixing as well - T-MAX films that come out of the fix with a strong pink base colour are underfixed, for example.

 

[rydolan]

Thanks for the info! The film that came out blue is Arista EDU Ultra 100, i.e. rebranded Fomapan, so the blue plastic makes perfect sense! And as for the R09, I have very little experience developing film, but the R09 seems like a very nice and easy to use developer. I did however have a roll of Acros come out particularly contrasty this afternoon, but I am also using a new, panoramic pinhole camera and I don't know very well yet. Still playing with getting the exposure times dialed in.

 

[polyglot]

You need to control your processing temperatures & times fairly carefully with T-grain films like Acros.