Just developed my first roll of 120 film, things went pretty well...

[logan2z]

I was a bit worried I'd have trouble loading the film onto the Jobo reel but I had absolutely no issues - in fact it seemed even easier than loading 35mm.

I developed the roll in a Jobo 1520 tank using HC-110 Dilution H for 9 minutes.

The negatives look pretty good with only one exception: There are a handful of circular spots of lower density on two adjacent negatives that I'm guessing are caused by air bells. I followed my usual protocol of 30 seconds of continuous agitation at the start of developing, and 4 inversions in 5 seconds every 30 seconds thereafter. I also rapped the tank on the counter after each agitation cycle, but still these circular areas are visible, if fairly subtle.

I've included an image below and circled an area that contains these spots. The circled area near the top contains an area of lower density that seems a bit different than the others in that it is not circular, so its cause may be different. I've darkened the image to make these spots more obvious.

Note that I can see these spots on the negative if I look really closely, so these are not scanning artifacts. I don't see any drying marks when I look directly at the negatives, but I guess that's another possibility. I might wash the negatives again just to make sure. The final rinse was done with distilled water and photoflo diluted according to Kodak's instructions, and I haven't seen drying marks on my other negatives.

Does anyone have an opinion as to whether these are from air bells or something else? If air bells, I'm not sure what I can do to eliminate them since I seem to be doing everything I know of to prevent them. Perhaps even gentler inversions would help? Or pre-soaking? I also have a Jobo roller (no room for an entire Jobo processor, unfortunately) that I might give a go to see if rotation instead of inversion is the cure.

Unrelated question: the negatives seem to have some of the anti-halation layer left in them and look a tiny bit purple. The developer came out of the tank with a bright purple tint so at least some of that layer came out during development, but apparently some remained. I'm using the Ilford wash method to conserve water so perhaps that didn't give a long enough wash to flush out all of the dye. Are there any long-term issues if some of the dye remains in the film, or is it benign?

 

[albada]

The dye is likely to be for sensitization. Leftover dye can occur from inadequate fixing. Try fixing some more, or try fresh fixer.
Air bells would be my guess too. I rap my tank hard against my wrist several times immediately after pouring in the developer, and haven't gotten air bells (yet).

Mark Overton

 

[Don_ih]

Any possibility there is some dirt on the rear element of your lens?

Also, those spots could be in many places on that image - you wouldn't see them anywhere else, though.

I'd refix the film and rewash, if the dye is still in it.

 

[otto.f]

Is this TriX?

 

[Agulliver]

Any possibility there is some dirt on the rear element of your lens?

Also, those spots could be in many places on that image - you wouldn't see them anywhere else, though.

I'd refix the film and rewash, if the dye is still in it.

I was going to suggest, those spots look a *lot* like spots that I had when a lens had microscopic pieces of dirt on the rear element. I eventually figured it out by mounting the lens on a digital camera and taking a lot of bracketed frames of blue skies, which showed up the problem clearly. And as you state, they were only visible in areas of uniform colour/brightness such as sky.

Have you used that camera/lens with another film? Do you have a way of checking the lens? If nothing else, you can rule out the lens being an issue if it checks out OK and go back to looking at film and development.

I've also come across a zoom lens with dirt on an inner element. At wide angle this was not noticed but zoomed in, it became painfully obvious.

 

[logan2z]

Is this TriX?

Yes, forgot to mention that in my original post.

 

[logan2z]

Any possibility there is some dirt on the rear element of your lens?

Also, those spots could be in many places on that image - you wouldn't see them anywhere else, though.

I'd refix the film and rewash, if the dye is still in it.

I'll check the lens for dirt, but I shot two identical frames in a row and the spots show up in different places. And those are the only two frames on the roll that show them despite several others having areas of blank sky.

Does fixer remove the anti-halation dye? The fixer (Ilford Rapid Fixer) was fresh and I fixed the film for 5 minutes.

 

[logan2z]

I was going to suggest, those spots look a *lot* like spots that I had when a lens had microscopic pieces of dirt on the rear element. I eventually figured it out by mounting the lens on a digital camera and taking a lot of bracketed frames of blue skies, which showed up the problem clearly. And as you state, they were only visible in areas of uniform colour/brightness such as sky.

Have you used that camera/lens with another film? Do you have a way of checking the lens? If nothing else, you can rule out the lens being an issue if it checks out OK and go back to looking at film and development.

I've used this lens to shoot many other rolls of film and I've never seen these spots before. But I'll take a close look at the lens and see if I notice anything on the rear element.

 

[Don_ih]

Does fixer remove the anti-halation dye? The fixer (Ilford Rapid Fixer) was fresh and I fixed the film for 5 minutes.

5 minutes should be good enough for the film.

I think alkalinity removes the dye best.

The spots could be defects in the emulsion. Seems unlikely, though.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

They're not caused by air bells on the film during development?

 

[Don_ih]

They're not caused by air bells on the film during development?

They could be. We're just mentioning possibilities.

Incidentally, air bubbles are pretty much impossible with continuous rotation.

 

[logan2z]

Incidentally, air bubbles are pretty much impossible with continuous rotation.

That's why I want to give it a try.

 

[madNbad]

I've been using a modified version of the Ilford wash. I added an extra change of fresh water then an an additional fifty inversions. Empty the tank, add a ML of PhotoFlo, refill the tank, a few inversions to mix the solution and coat the film. Seems to be working pretty well without using a lot of extra water.

 

[otto.f]

Yes, forgot to mention that in my original post.

Because I had this with TriX too; did the same subject and shooting situation with pancro film and there were no spots on the pancro film, just did that in its own recommended developer PMK, and the TriX in HC110. HC110 is a very thick emulsion (not the recent version btw, don't know about that one). It takes a lot of time and agitation to get an even liquid

 

[logan2z]

I think alkalinity removes the dye best.

Is there any issue if the dye isn't fully removed from the developed film? There's only a hint of purple tint in the negatives, I think most of the dye was removed during development.

 

[Munky]

I get these spots as well when I scan my negs, both my sensor and lens are dusty

 

[250swb]

The spots are drying marks, the rest of the film has dried faster than the last spots of water on the surface. Use a wetting agent such as Ilfotol to break the surface tension of the rinse water before drying.

 

[logan2z]

I get these spots as well when I scan my negs, both my sensor and lens are dusty

In my case, they're on the negative.

 

[logan2z]

The spots are drying marks, the rest of the film has dried faster than the last spots of water on the surface. Use a wetting agent such as Ilfotol to break the surface tension of the rinse water before drying.

As mentioned in my OP, I used Photoflo and distilled water in the final rinse. I will rewash and see if that eliminates the marks.

 

[Pieter12]

I am not absolutely sure of this, but if you hold the negative at an acute angle to a beam of light, drying marks should be detectable (look at both sides). If not, I would suspect uneven development.

 

[Don_ih]

Is there any issue if the dye isn't fully removed from the developed film?

No. With Tmax films, I assume it means the film was not fixed enough (Tmax needs twice the fixing time of normal film).