somethings wrong with my camera or developing

I got an EX+ Leica M6 for a great price from the estate of a distant sort-of-relative. The camera appears to be barely used and if I had to guess based on the manual looks to be about 15 years old. It has the 35mm F2 Summicron, I don't think it's ASPH or whatever.

There's something strange going on with the camera or my developing or something. In the attached picture, there are bars that line up with the sprockets, or more like fog that lines up with the sprocket holes.

This appears on some rolls of BW film I've developed but not all. It also happened to a lesser degree on a color roll I took to the lab. So I'm not sure that it's my developing but I really have no clue.

Some pictures are fogged, like the above, and some come out great. I'm really confused as to what's going on. There doesn't seem to be light seals that have deteriorated, but maybe I'm missing something.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!
Paul

You might be rewinding the film backwards. These might be stress marks from doing that.

15 years old and barely used indicate long periods of storage. It might help to exercise the camera a bit by winding and releasing 10 times at each shutter speed. It's a good idea to do this every 6 months or so, anyway.

These "Streamers" from the sprocket holes is a classic sign of uneven development caused by too vigorous agitation of the tank that causes the developer to surge through the film sprocket holes causing the streamers , I think you are probably just out of practice at processing .

Dear Paul,

Uneven development is caused by insufficient agitation, not too much. As an example, my Jobo agitates aggressively and continuously but gives nice even development. A common cause of insufficient agitation that pops up on APUG is overfilling stainless steel tanks. Without some room to move, it's hard to get fresh developer to the film as it gets used up. You must ensure that there is enough fluid to cover the film and reel, but not so much as to prevent the fluid from sloshing around during agitation.

Good luck,

Neal Wydra

Shoot a cheap roll of C-41 film and send it out to a lab. If it comes back looking the same, its camera, if not, then its time to reassess developing procedure.

Neal said:

Dear Paul,

Uneven development is caused by insufficient agitation, not too much. As an example, my Jobo agitates aggressively and continuously but gives nice even development. A common cause of insufficient agitation that pops up on APUG is overfilling stainless steel tanks. Without some room to move, it's hard to get fresh developer to the film as it gets used up. You must ensure that there is enough fluid to cover the film and reel, but not so much as to prevent the fluid from sloshing around during agitation.

Good luck,

Neal Wydra

Click to expand...

No Neil, look at item 2 under uneven development these are the exact symptoms the O.P.s negs. show. http://www.silverlight.co.uk/tutorials/basicpf/filmprobs.html

This certainly looks like a processing issue. Streaks from under agitation and that band in the middle looks like it could possibly be from incomplete fixing: the film hasn't been totally cleared and you are trying to print through it. If there is cloudiness on the surface of the neg that would confirm that. You can refix, though. Rick has good advice, that should narrow it down.

I had a problem like this once which tuned out to be light leaks from my changing bag. I had initially suspected surge marks as Ben suggests or some sort of stress thing from rewinding film whilst under tension.

replace your fixer asap, the clear areas and streaks are a classic sign of under fixing.

the film has cleared where the fix has been squirted through the sprocket holes every where else on the neg has not had that extra agitation

Thanks for all the comments.

I'm inclined to believe it's that my fixer is dead, because I had some cloudy areas on some LF negatives I developed in a unicolor tank too. Actually on a number of negatives. I should have asked about that as well.

The only thing that makes me wonder is as mentioned, I had the same thing happen with a roll of color film I had processed at a pro-lab here in Boston. I have to say though that the film came back with a big water mark the whole length of the roll, so I wasn't very impressed with them.



This is a crop with contrast exaggerated to make it clearer.

Should I just think it's coincidence and that the prolab has screwed up chemistry too?

Other issues:
I'm using a crappy changing bag that's been causing other problems: too small to load the unicolor tank so I ended up scratching the LF negatives. I'm going to make a larger wooden box to use as a changing bag instead. Darkroom is bathroom, I have roomates and lightproofing is not going to happen.

And referring to the above comment, I have been filling my steel tanks up to the top. Should I fill them just enough to cover the film?

thanks!

i have also heard not to fill my tanks all the way up,
but then there is a problem of not filling ... enough
and getting a big mark on all your film where the developer
sat in between inversions. i've done that
with sheet film in a tank i thought was ful but wasn't ...
( now i fill my tanks up until they overflow from the top )

i'd show the film to to someone at the lab and ask THEM what happened.

nice websites btw!

Here's the 5x7 negative that had some big cloudy spots on it


Out of the 5x7 negatives I developed with this same chemistry in the Bessler tank I have with rotary processing, 1 was completely thin, just the faintest image on it. 2 were more or less fine, and this one had these big cloudy spots.

I'm really confused why the cloudy spots here run along a diagonal line.

It was not a fun night of developing. Next time I want to do one roll and get it perfect.

Chalk up one more for inadequate fixation.

interesting situation, I think there could be more than one thing causing this, did you develop film shot with another camera recently?

That last one of the 5x7 -- is it my imagination, or isn't there a sort of diagonal line in that lower left corner? It looks to me like another film might have overlapped and cut off flow of chemicals?

(Dunno, I don't do stuff that big!)

DWTHOMAS...I think that quite possibly might be it. The tube is way too big to manipulate easily in my changing bag, so I might not have been able to check if the film was all the way in there.

Thanks!

I use a liter tank,with a single reel, so the reel slides between the top and bottom of the tank when I rotate. I've never experienced any development issues working in this manner. I have, however, experienced issues with smaller tanks, where the reels don't move around.