Today I developed my first roll of Santa. It was also the first time I used my LabBox. I found that trying to fix the clip to the film was very difficult, the film feeling very slippery and slipping through my fingers. When I thought the film was correctly aligned, I closed the lid, wound the film into the reel. I decided to do stand development - Rodinal 1:100, using 500ml. Rotated the reel for a full minute and rocked the tank slightly.Then left alone for a full hour except for a few rotations midway.The result a virtual disaster. Only the first 16 frames out of 36 were fully developed, but they were twisted out of shape. The other part of the film was completely undeveloped, the negatives obviously not entering the grooves in the reel and were cream in colour and opaque. Despite the distorted negatives, I am able to see that stand dev with Rodinal works well, sharp negatives, ok a bit contrasty, but reasonably good shadow detail.
Any tips on handling this ‘thin’ negative film appreciated. Perhaps I would have been better using a standard tank. This way the film would not have to be skewed slightly like when being fed into the centre of the reel.
Any tips on handling this ‘thin’ negative film appreciated. Perhaps I would have been better using a standard tank. This way the film would not have to be skewed slightly like when being fed into the centre of the reel.