Interesting Fog Issue

[relistan]

Hey folks, I'm looking for ideas about what kind of fog I'm looking at here and would appreciate some assistance. I have just developed two rolls of film of the same stock, same batch, same age, in the same tank at the same time and got totally different base levels of fog. This was XTOL stock, same XTOL that I have been using.

The film is Agfa APX-100 (original Leverkusen stuff packaged by Lupus) from the last batch, expiry 10/2015. I had stored both in the freezer prior to shooting, they moved internationally with me, then went back into the freezer.

1. The roll with no noticeable fog was shot in November 2016 and sat on a shelf until now.
   
2. The roll with dark fog was in the freezer until about 9 months ago, I took it on my last international air travel before Covid, did not shoot it after all, and it sat on a shelf until I shot it about 3 weeks ago.

The fog is completely even. I'm attaching a photo. It was really hard to get a decent shot of this, so there is a bit of glare on the right from a lamp. Given how even the fog is I would have thought it was chemical fog from development, but the fact that they were in the same exact chemistry indicates it was a different source. I have not had this problem with other rolls with the same expiry, but it has been awhile since I developed one (the rest are frozen). It's hard to suspect the XTOL since they were in the same exact bath. Could my freezer be a culprit? Or heat? Or X-Rays from air travel? All of those I would have thought would be uneven fog.

Ideas appreciated!

(to be clear, the sort of square shape you can see faintly on the left is from the end of roll (it's normal on this film).

 

[DeletedAcct1]

Hey folks, I'm looking for ideas about what kind of fog I'm looking at here and would appreciate some assistance. I have just developed two rolls of film of the same stock, same batch, same age, in the same tank at the same time and got totally different base levels of fog. This was XTOL stock, same XTOL that I have been using.

The film is Agfa APX-100 (original Leverkusen stuff packaged by Lupus) from the last batch, expiry 10/2015. I had stored both in the freezer prior to shooting, they moved internationally with me, then went back into the freezer.

1. The roll with no noticeable fog was shot in November 2016 and sat on a shelf until now.
   
2. The roll with dark fog was in the freezer until about 9 months ago, I took it on my last international air travel before Covid, did not shoot it after all, and it sat on a shelf until I shot it about 3 weeks ago.

The fog is completely even. I'm attaching a photo. It was really hard to get a decent shot of this, so there is a bit of glare on the right from a lamp. Given how even the fog is I would have thought it was chemical fog from development, but the fact that they were in the same exact chemistry indicates it was a different source. I have not had this problem with other rolls with the same expiry, but it has been awhile since I developed one (the rest are frozen). It's hard to suspect the XTOL since they were in the same exact bath. Could my freezer be a culprit? Or heat? Or X-Rays from air travel? All of those I would have thought would be uneven fog.

Ideas appreciated!

(to be clear, the sort of square shape you can see faintly on the left is from the end of roll (it's normal on this film).

View attachment 260313

Xtol is a very clean working developer.
I think the problem is that the film with a higher b+f has got much higher radiation (fly on planes etc, airport scanners) than the other.

 

[Anon Ymous]

That's quite interesting. Here's my strange experience with the same film stock... I had bought some Rollei Retro 100 (original APX100) many years ago (expiration date 1/2012), but stopped shooting for some years. I started shooting again about six years ago and it was still fine for some years. I never put these films in a refrigerator, they were stored at room temperature and didn't take a flight either. Then, out of the blue, the rest of the box became quite foggy and the first 6 or so frames show some bands of even higher density. The rest has uniform fog, about as dense as the one on the left in your photo. It has also lost quite a lot of sensitivity, it's ISO 25-32 as far as I can tell.

I have developed it in Rodinal and homebrew Perceptol and Xtol, it always comes out foggy.

 

[MattKing]

Emulsions are inherently alive and unstable - in a generally slow reacting kind of way.
The two films were exposed to different environments at different times, over a significantly long period of time, and you are seeing the results.
It is by nature unpredictable.

 

[relistan]

That's quite interesting. Here's my strange experience with the same film stock... I had bought some Rollei Retro 100 (original APX100) many years ago (expiration date 1/2012), but stopped shooting for some years. I started shooting again about six years ago and it was still fine for some years. I never put these films in a refrigerator, they were stored at room temperature and didn't take a flight either. Then, out of the blue, the rest of the box became quite foggy and the first 6 or so frames show some bands of even higher density. The rest has uniform fog, about as dense as the one on the left in your photo. It has also lost quite a lot of sensitivity, it's ISO 25-32 as far as I can tell.

I have developed it in Rodinal and homebrew Perceptol and Xtol, it always comes out foggy.

Interesting, thanks. When I lived in Germany I used to buy APX-100 at the pharmacy/convenient store (DM) and shoot it. I shot a lot of it. I still have a lot of it. But all the other rolls have been very good. It's my favorite film. This is the only time I've seen this. As MattKing indicated, it could just be a thing that happened and nobody will ever know what.

Emulsions are inherently alive and unstable - in a generally slow reacting kind of way.
The two films were exposed to different environments at different times, over a significantly long period of time, and you are seeing the results.
It is by nature unpredictable.

Thanks. Sure, and I am clear that there might not be a good answer. However all the other rolls I have shot that I compared, look like the one on the right. So I thought there might be a clearer issue with this particular roll. Something maybe one of you guys would recognize.

The good outcome here so far for me is that neither of you has said "Yes, definitely a freezer issue" That would have been a bummer. Also, it's not so fogged that I can't print from it—though I haven't tried yet.