Help with sudden staining on RA4 Prints?

[legstowalkmyself]

I never had staining until i changed to this new developer replenisher by champion. Formerly i was using belini kit, adox or the arista kit. When i started using the champion stuff and the filtration totally changed entirely unlike before and i started to get this consistent staining yellow and cyan around the edges or sometimes staining the whole sheet yellowish. I never had to use a stop bath but when i did its a bit better but still stains. The blix i use is still Bellini. Any help with this issue? Thank you!

Gear and Workflow
Beseler 23Cii
Fuji DPii 8x10
Beseler 8x10 Drum

60ml in drum @ 93degrees of Developer
60ml in drum @ 93degrees of Blix
Wash & Dry

 

[legstowalkmyself]

dev is in drum for 1:00min
and blix is in for 1:30min

 

[mshchem]

Try stop bath between dev and blix

 

[mshchem]

Another thing is you can try using a bit more, like 100mL of each solution.

You need to prewet in a drum too.

I started printing with a drum (stainless steel) that floated in 100°F water bath, 5 solutions, 7 minutes. c. 1973.

 

[koraks]

Cyan staining is virtually always a problem with blix contamination in the developer. It takes only a little to destroy the developer. Try mixing some fresh developer that has not been in contact with any bottles etc. that you used for the developer up to this point.

With drums, you really should be using a stop bath. Also, a likely source of contamination of the developer is blix that lingers in the light trap of the drum. You need to rinse the drums really, really well before the next development run.

 

[F4U]

Not intending to sound obtuse, my own first reaction would be to thoroughly wash out my equipment and switch back to what worked for me. Color silver-based photography was always hit and miss, especially with all these third party manufacturers of supplies. I spent my whole professional life in color in a similar field to photography. To this day I can't say I ever once made a perfect color match to suit me. The moral being, if you HAD something satisfactory to you with what you WERE using, then go back to buying that same supply. What i'm seeing here, even on a computer screen is entirely unacceptable. Throw the new chemistry out in the driveway and buy fresh of what you were using.

 

[koraks]

Color silver-based photography was always hit and miss

That's a very puzzling and rather tendentious remark, which is factually incorrect too, at least when applied to the color materials used in the last 50-60 years or so. Of course, photographer's/printer's expertise is certainly hit & miss. The human is the weakest link in this chain. There's really no reason to cast doubt on color photography as a concept. It's robust.

And as said, this looks like a fairly simple contamination problem. It's possible that the Bellini developer contains fewer or no chelating agents that are present in e.g. Fuji chemistry (and perhaps also Champion; IDK). These can to a (very limited) extent protect against very minor contamination of the developer with blix, making it conceivable that a process problem that already existed went unnoticed before.

 

[mshchem]

I thought that Champion was defunct? IDK,

 

[koraks]

I thought that Champion was defunct? IDK,

I think they still operate (?) but only in/from Malaysia. They used to have representation elsewhere on the planet (Canada?) but that office/location shut down a few years ago. Going from memory here; maybe @MattKing can comment. Either way, Bellini's products are generally excellent and there are no regular complaints with their current product lineup that I'm aware of.