Help, what happed here!

snusmumriken · May 2, 2023

Is there any chance you could have mixed the stop bath too strong? Do you even use a stop bath?

Steve York · May 2, 2023

snusmumriken said:
Is there any chance you could have mixed the stop bath too strong? Do you even use a stop bath?

Don't think so. I use TF4 as a fixer, and that combines the stop bath.

Steve York · May 2, 2023

Don Heisz said:
That is mold. I have developed lots of moldy film. The last stuff was on rolls that I got from a guy - he'd bulk rolled them then put them in the door of his freezer (in the fridge). Every roll got moldy. Mold eats the emulsion - it likes the gelatin. I had mold that looked like that on tmax 100 that was in a bulk loader someone kept in a fridge. Things can go moldy in a fridge.

It's visible on undeveloped film. Look for areas that are discoloured.

Would I be able to see the mold with the naked eye on undeveloped film? I don't see anything on the bulk rolled film I have unrolled.

And if it is mold, does that mean the film in junked or can it be salvaged?

I routinely keep my film in the freezer, never had an issue, even stuff frozen for a decade, but these 400' bulk rolls were refrigerated. Don't know they storage conditions before it hit me, but came straight from the manufacture. Isn't film supposed to be cold stored?

Mine doesn't look totally like mold, from pics I've seen on the web. Mold on negs will have this halo thing going, a circle within a circle, like the picture you posted. I don't see that with my negative.

Don_ih · May 2, 2023

The mold on what I posted is how it impacts Tmax. I have different-looking effects of mold on FP4, on Gaevart duplicating film, on old TriX, and on Efke film. The mold had taken hold for a long time on the film in the example I posted. Perhaps your mold is just starting out.
If you have doubts, contact Orwo. Since it's so much film, I'd try asking if they think it's a material defect.

shead · May 2, 2023

Here's a thought that happened to me in 1989. I was bulk loading a canister in the university newspaper darkroom and it was an exceptionally dry day. I was warned not to load fast but was speeding 30-40 frames-worth of Tri X as fast as I could. I got similar soft dots like you have there, and my photography instructor said it was from little sparks of static electricity as I ran the film so fast out of the bulk feeder. Made sense then, might be a load of rubbish but that's what my film looked like then.

koraks · May 3, 2023

@Don Heisz , that's indeed strikingly similar. However, what puzzles me, is the soft edges to the blobs in OP's case compared to yours. I can't quite marry the diffuse edges to fungal growth; perhaps if the fuzziness in reality is a corona of tiny filaments - but those generally show up much bigger in a 35mm scan, since they're a couple of cells wide and that's already a recognizable structure on a tiny 35mm frame.

Don_ih · May 3, 2023

koraks said:
I can't quite marry the diffuse edges to fungal growth

That's why I said he should check with Orwo and see if they think it's material defect. If there were somehow some kind of bubbles in the emulsion, that could leave fuzzy edges.

shead said:
I got similar soft dots like you have there, and my photography instructor said it was from little sparks of static electricity as I ran the film so fast out of the bulk feeder.

Static discharge leaves an exposed trail on a negative, which would be while lines (or perhaps dots?) on a positive.

Steve York · May 3, 2023

shead said:
Here's a thought that happened to me in 1989. I was bulk loading a canister in the university newspaper darkroom and it was an exceptionally dry day. I was warned not to load fast but was speeding 30-40 frames-worth of Tri X as fast as I could. I got similar soft dots like you have there, and my photography instructor said it was from little sparks of static electricity as I ran the film so fast out of the bulk feeder. Made sense then, might be a load of rubbish but that's what my film looked like then.

I was tediously loading the cassettes by hand in a dark closet. Ha, ha, I wish it was a fast process.

Steve York · May 7, 2023

Orwo never got back with me, but I did develop a few more rolls from the big 400' bulk roll and those rolls developed fine. I did chuck out about 15 rolls -- so it appears it was just a portion of the bulk roll that was bad.

Ivo Stunga · May 7, 2023

Steve York said:
And if it is mold, does that mean the film in junked or can it be salvaged?

If it's mold, then no - nothing is recoverable and you either live with the defects or turn defective film into a training/exemplary roll or something. Because if it's mold, the fungus responsible for it has eaten the gelatin, - digested it and therefore introduced permanent and physical changes. You can stop the growth with antifungals and by changing the storage environment, but not reverse the damage.

eli griggs · Jun 6, 2023

Don Heisz said:
Here's a magical moldy example: moldy tmax 100:

View attachment 337513

You can safely name this print "Rata-tat-tat" and sign it "AR-15/M4".

Help, what happed here!

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