Fuji Crystal Archive came out with green tint.

rpavich · Mar 18, 2017

I'm thinking that my RA-4 developer is screwed up.

I ran a test strip the day before yesterday and the border of the paper looked fine, nice and white.

I did another test print this morning and it was also fine, but on the third one, my border turned light green.

I'm hoping that it's just my developer that got a drop of something in it. I dumped my dev and blix and am now heating up fresh in the jobo.

Any experience with this? Is this what it is?

rpavich · Mar 18, 2017

UPDATE: I just printed using fresh chems and the print came out fine. I think I must have splashed something where it shouldn't have splashed.

Mr Bill · Mar 18, 2017

The developer is very sensitive to blix contamination; unexposed paper will take on a cyan cast. If you're working with trays, is it possible that you moved a set of tongs backwards (from blix to developer)?

Heavily oxidized developer should do something similar, but I'm not sure exactly what color. I'm guessing the same thing, though - top layer of paper reacting.

I can't think of any (reasonable) way for blix to do this.

You didn't just start using a safelight, did you?

Update: I see that you've got things going ok again. Just for reference, next time you're ready to throw out a batch of (used) developer, you might want to try contaminating it with a small amount of blix, then develop a test strip. Then you'll be able to recognize, for sure, such a problem in the future.

rpavich · Mar 18, 2017

Mr Bill said:
The developer is very sensitive to blix contamination; unexposed paper will take on a cyan cast. If you're working with trays, is it possible that you moved a set of tongs backwards (from blix to developer)?

Heavily oxidized developer should do something similar, but I'm not sure exactly what color. I'm guessing the same thing, though - top layer of paper reacting.

I can't think of any (reasonable) way for blix to do this.

You didn't just start using a safelight, did you?

No. The only thing I could think was chems. Everything else stayed the same. I'm doing another print now but it appears to be solved.

bvy · Mar 18, 2017

Any developer that I'm going to reuse I treat with the utmost care. It comes out and goes right back into its storage container. So all it ever touches is the development vessel (tank or drum, both of which are closed) and maybe a funnel. It's served me well, because I really can't say (from experience) that I know what developer contamination looks like. Anyway, it sounds like you solved your problem...

rpavich · Mar 18, 2017

bvy said:
Any developer that I'm going to reuse I treat with the utmost care. It comes out and goes right back into its storage container. So all it ever touches is the development vessel (tank or drum, both of which are closed) and maybe a funnel. It's served me well, because I really can't say (from experience) that I know what developer contamination looks like. Anyway, it sounds like you solved your problem...

Yes, thats solved, now on to the problem of putting the damn paper in the easel crooked!!! Argggg!

Tim Stapp · Mar 19, 2017

Uh, I've never done that (roll eyes). It seems that it happens with 16x20 much more so that 5x7, go figure

rpavich · Mar 19, 2017

Ok....solved...uh...not quite.

My borders are still not dead-white.

When I started this morning at 38c I had 100% white borders. I went through the whole thing of making test prints and had my exposure and such nailed down but then my chems got depleted and I had to add a LOT of fresh.

Add to that my Jobo magnet came off and I was now doing the prints on a Unicolor Roller at room temp.

So everything is fine, except my borders are ever-so-off white.

What does that indicate?

bvy · Mar 19, 2017

rpavich said:
Ok....solved...uh...not quite.

My borders are still not dead-white.

When I started this morning at 38c I had 100% white borders. I went through the whole thing of making test prints and had my exposure and such nailed down but then my chems got depleted and I had to add a LOT of fresh.

Add to that my Jobo magnet came off and I was now doing the prints on a Unicolor Roller at room temp.

So everything is fine, except my borders are ever-so-off white.

What does that indicate?

See the other thread...

Fuji Crystal Archive came out with green tint.

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