Some odd results developing

I developed 3 rolls of film this evening, but got some weird results.

As you can see from the pic, aside from the leader the roll in the middle has come out totally blank, not even a hint or residue of anything on it. Also no evidence of edge markings, which leads me to thinking the issue was with development.
The roll on the right is Ilford Delta 3200, the other 2 are both a few years expired Tmax 100
They were all developed in D76 1:1, Delta for 12 min, Tmax for 9.5 as per the instructions.
The only difference between the two rolls of Tmax is the middle one i used 3ml of 1% benzotriazole as the film is slightly foggy from its age.
The obvious answer is the benzo is the culprit, unless i'm missing something else?

Also, why is the one on the left so damn purple

I don't know about your blank roll. The purple one just needs longer washing.

I've noticed that tired fixer will leave T-grain film purple, even after washing. Try refixing with fresh fixer.

Mark Overton

Since your middle roll has some signs of development I would try to amplify the image chemically (copper - ferrocyanide)

"Aside from the leader"

That the leader is dark means the developer did *something*. It didn't get dark at the factory!

The developer did something with that middle roll, as the leader is dark. That shows that film exposed to lots of light did react and the developer developed it. The fact that there are no edge markings is unusual...are you sure this was TMAX-100? Was it a factory produced cassette or bulk loaded?

The Delta looks OK. Not high contrast but one often gets that with Delta 3200. The TMAX on the left looks OK too, and I concur that these films are often pink/megenta if they are not washed long enough or if the fixer is nearly exhausted. T-grain and Delta films seem to need longer fixing times compared to traditional cubic grain film. Also several films, even Ilford HP5+ have a purple hue which goes upon washing...if you wash in a sink full of water you can see the colour leech out into your basin.

Another thought....do you have expiry dates for both TMAX films? Are they from the same source, ie similar age and stored in similar conditions? In my experience TMAX 3200 does not age well...possibly the same is true for the slower TMAX films? I've not got that experience though. Most expired B&W films are fine.

albada said:

I've noticed that tired fixer will leave T-grain film purple, even after washing. Try refixing with fresh fixer.

Mark Overton

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I have the same observations.

My take on the middle roll is that it was not loaded in the camera properly, so it was never transported while shooting.

The lack of edge markings has to be on the original film since there's no way you could develop density in the leader but not in the factory-original markings.

That said, the leader density is very low, suggesting perhaps minimal development. This could reduce the density of the edge markings.

- Leigh

expired film needs more exposure and more development ( usually )
i have never used d76 ... did you use the same developer for each roll, one after the next?
did you load the 2 tmx films together?
if they were all done one after the next with the same developer used over and over again..
by the time it got to be time to do the last roll there was nothing left, and low exposure, low developer, low time developed
might render a blank roll.

You may experience strange results when you use expired film. That's why film is dated.

The film on the left just needed a bit longer in the fix. Re did it the next day and all was fine.
They were all processed in D76 separately, and no i didn't re-use the developer.
Pretty sure the issue was simply too much benzo with the middle roll

TattyJJ said:

The film on the left just needed a bit longer in the fix. Re did it the next day and all was fine.
They were all processed in D76 separately, and no i didn't re-use the developer.
Pretty sure the issue was simply too much benzo with the middle roll

Click to expand...

That could certainly have done it. BTW, BZT is not usually recommended for film. Better to develop normally and allow for a bit more exposure during printing.

Gerald C Koch said:

That could certainly have done it. BTW, BZT is not usually recommended for film. Better to develop normally and allow for a bit more exposure during printing.

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Indeed it would seem that way!
No big deal though, the film was had nothing of great loss on it. Lesson learned

I never use Benzotriazole when developing past dated film. I've shot 35-40 year old TriX without issues, simply shoot at half speed, develop as normal, live with the fog (it usually isn't bad enough to worry). Re fix and wash the T Max film, it'll clear.

TattyJJ said:

The only difference between the two rolls of Tmax is the middle one i used 3ml of 1% benzotriazole as the film is slightly foggy from its age.
The obvious answer is the benzo is the culprit, unless i'm missing something else?

Click to expand...

It seems that there are not edge markings on the middle roll, so Benzo is the culprit indeed. It would be almost the same thing if you use an acid stop bath or the fixer before the reducer stage, but in this case even that "black-leader" part would have faded as well.

Where did you get the idea of using "Benzo" with expired film? Why were you so sure about - and how did you measure - the "slightly" foggy part?

TattyJJ said:

Also, why is the one on the left so damn purple

Click to expand...

Next time pre-wash the film ... unless you want to use benzotriazole with it again. (wink)

Best!