Hello everyone. I recently developed some film in a Jobo CPP-2 and had a processing fault that I could not diagnose. I used one of the large drums and processed 4 rolls of 120 -- 1 was mine, and the others from another photographer (and camera). They were all HP5+ and developed in Xtol 1+1 (no prewet). The processing itself came out just fine, with no sign of ill effects.
That said, there were several black marks on the film that seem to be spots where there was some sort of contamination. They seem to be embedded in the film base or emulsion, not sitting on top. Pec-12 does not remove them. They seem to be brownish black on the film, and they appear as white on scans etc. It looks almost like solid contamination, rather than liquid, but I cannot be sure. They were present in very small amounts on all the rolls, mostly looking like little dust spots. There were not many of them. In two cases, they were larger, and enough to be a real problem for the image. I ran another run in the same equipment (which I rinsed out etc), and they were still there, but only in one or two places and much more sporadic.
I am linking some scans of it. One is the highest resolution of the largest damage, scanned as color positive, and the other is an excerpt of the same image as a black and white negative. If anyone has any idea what type of contamination this might be, and how to avoid it, that would be great.
P.S. Is it ok to wash the plastic reels and drum with soap and water? I know they do not recommend this because of the buildup of residue, but I am wondering if it might help in this case.
Some background too -- I have never seen this before and have been processing in the same way for a while. I used filtered tap water for my solutions and process. The Xtol is relatively fresh -- perhaps 3-4 weeks old in a tank with a floating lid. The develop is used one shot, but the stop is reused. Hypo clear was mixed fresh, and Fix is a two bath method, both with fairly newly mixed chemicals. Could it be residue from the tape? I recently started folding over the tape on the film on Jobo's recommendation. Previously I had been tearing or cutting it off...
That said, there were several black marks on the film that seem to be spots where there was some sort of contamination. They seem to be embedded in the film base or emulsion, not sitting on top. Pec-12 does not remove them. They seem to be brownish black on the film, and they appear as white on scans etc. It looks almost like solid contamination, rather than liquid, but I cannot be sure. They were present in very small amounts on all the rolls, mostly looking like little dust spots. There were not many of them. In two cases, they were larger, and enough to be a real problem for the image. I ran another run in the same equipment (which I rinsed out etc), and they were still there, but only in one or two places and much more sporadic.
I am linking some scans of it. One is the highest resolution of the largest damage, scanned as color positive, and the other is an excerpt of the same image as a black and white negative. If anyone has any idea what type of contamination this might be, and how to avoid it, that would be great.
P.S. Is it ok to wash the plastic reels and drum with soap and water? I know they do not recommend this because of the buildup of residue, but I am wondering if it might help in this case.
Some background too -- I have never seen this before and have been processing in the same way for a while. I used filtered tap water for my solutions and process. The Xtol is relatively fresh -- perhaps 3-4 weeks old in a tank with a floating lid. The develop is used one shot, but the stop is reused. Hypo clear was mixed fresh, and Fix is a two bath method, both with fairly newly mixed chemicals. Could it be residue from the tape? I recently started folding over the tape on the film on Jobo's recommendation. Previously I had been tearing or cutting it off...
