Kodak Plux-X is Blue-ish after development?

[waffles]

I stopped by the Nashville Community Darkroom last month, and they had a couple expired rolls of Kodak Plus-X for sale in 120. I bought one and developed it in Ilfosol 3. I immediately noticed that the developed film seems to have a blue-ish cast to it. Is this normal for Plus-X? What could have caused it? The emulsion doesn't have much fog. It appears to be the actual triacetate base that is blue.

 

[Nodda Duma]

As designed... the color itself is residual sensitizing dye. My Panatomic X is the same way.

 

[glbeas]

It may be traces of the anti halation dye left, but many films are not dead clear when fixed. Its probably a bit of dye to inhibit light piping in the film base.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The film needs more fixing and washing.

 

[NB23]

Yes. And it’s the most beautiful thing.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

I remember Plus-X as having a slight blue cast to the film when processed correctly. If it's more than slight, you might want to try refixing in freshly-mixed fix and rewashing (can't hurt).

Doremus

 

[MattKing]

I use a pre-rinse whenever I develop film.
I miss 120 Plus-X for a bunch of reasons, including the brilliant blue colour of the anti-halation dies when I dump out the pre-rinse prior to adding the developer.
HCA can help with pink/magenta colour.
Maybe it will help with blue, too.

 

[Christiaan Phleger]

Yes this emulsion was coated on a film that was slightly blue until Kodak shifted all the film production to the same building and using the same substrate, at this point the emulsion seemed like it was tweaked slightly. This was also the time period when Tmax 400 and Try-X got small tweaks as well.

My recommendation is to at least try the remaining rolls in a less modern developer. I was given perhaps 80 rolls of Plus-X in 120 from around this era and I found out that the film was not very good looking or responsive in 'modern' developers such as Ilfosol or Xtol. It needed a very robust developer on the order of D-76, Rodinal at stronger dilutions and what I found was my preferred combination of DK-50 1:1. I figured out I got the film for free because everyone who tested the large batch of film thought the film was "bad" since by that time pretty much everyone in the area only really used what the only store in town would carry and most only used Ilfosol and Xtol.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Yes this emulsion was coated on a film that was slightly blue until Kodak shifted all the film production to the same building and using the same substrate, at this point the emulsion seemed like it was tweaked slightly. This was also the time period when Tmax 400 and Try-X got small tweaks as well.

My recommendation is to at least try the remaining rolls in a less modern developer. I was given perhaps 80 rolls of Plus-X in 120 from around this era and I found out that the film was not very good looking or responsive in 'modern' developers such as Ilfosol or Xtol. It needed a very robust developer on the order of D-76, Rodinal at stronger dilutions and what I found was my preferred combination of DK-50 1:1. I figured out I got the film for free because everyone who tested the large batch of film thought the film was "bad" since by that time pretty much everyone in the area only really used what the only store in town would carry and most only used Ilfosol and Xtol.

How does it do with pyro?

 

[BradS]

Yes. The blue-ish cast is/was normal with plus-x. It will wash out but requires many changes of water. Using Kodak Hypo Clearing Agent as directed makes it washing out faster....but still takes a lot of water and it really does not seem to be a problem.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

The film needs more fixing and washing.

I'm alsopretty sure the blueish cast is residual antihalation dye and it won't hurt anythingbut, if it bothers you, Sirius is correct; longer fixing andwashing or a washing-aid bath before washing will clear it; I believe, basically, a longer wet time will remove the antihalation dye.

 

[waffles]

As designed... the color itself is residual sensitizing dye. My Panatomic X is the same way.

Okay, good to know! I'd never heard of a film having leftover dye except the notorious pink dye in TMax.

 

[waffles]

I'm alsopretty sure the blueish cast is residual antihalation dye and it won't hurt anythingbut, if it bothers you, Sirius is correct; longer fixing andwashing or a washing-aid bath before washing will clear it; I believe, basically, a longer wet time will remove the antihalation dye.

I washed it for a good 20 minutes already. I'm not sure re-washing it will have any effect. Maybe the anti-halation layer becomes less porous over time?