I started this thread and Yes, I was sitting when I was doing Stand Development. I had some lunch and surfed a bit while waiting for all the timers in my shop.
Thank you, Milpool. You are exactly right. This thread was primarily about DD-X not developing.
Someone asked if I perhaps had mistakenly fixed the film first and then developed it. This would not have been possible for a number of reasons, the primary one being that I would have been without fixer, if I had started by pouring it out. I was doing five small 500ml tanks serially, starting one every 15 minutes with each their own timer. Two of them were Delta 100 and Delta 3200, respectively. After the wash, they were both totally blank. Even if I would not have exposed them, I would still expect to be able to read Ilford’s delta impressions at the edges of the 120 roll film. There was nothing.
This morning, in my sunny garden, I exposed a roll of 120 Foma 100. It is the cheapest film in my freezer. I exposed it as 50 and developed it for 10 minutes at 20C in DD-X 1+4, just to make sure there would be something on the film if there was anything. The negatives are overly punchy, needing a grade 1, if I ever were to make pictures of tulip tree flowers.
So it is not the DD-X that was the problem. That is good!
Could it be the 5 minute pre-wash in Copenhagen tap water? That sounds unlikely. It worked fine with the other non-Delta films. Did I forget the DD-X and just develop in water? No, because I distinctly remember using the same pitcher for the 1+9 mix as I used today. Did I do 1+90? No, it was 900+100ml – I am sure.
Should I, tomorrow morning, expose a Delta film and repeat today’s folly? I am tempted …. but maybe it is just one of those things. Life goes on.
As regards Stand Development, in the future I will do this in secret and refrain from reporting more about this here. Maybe one day, when I have conquered uneven development and sorted out the pros and cons, I will write another thread. I was surprised at the tone of some of the responses here. Niall Ferguson may be right.
Thank you, Milpool. You are exactly right. This thread was primarily about DD-X not developing.
Someone asked if I perhaps had mistakenly fixed the film first and then developed it. This would not have been possible for a number of reasons, the primary one being that I would have been without fixer, if I had started by pouring it out. I was doing five small 500ml tanks serially, starting one every 15 minutes with each their own timer. Two of them were Delta 100 and Delta 3200, respectively. After the wash, they were both totally blank. Even if I would not have exposed them, I would still expect to be able to read Ilford’s delta impressions at the edges of the 120 roll film. There was nothing.
This morning, in my sunny garden, I exposed a roll of 120 Foma 100. It is the cheapest film in my freezer. I exposed it as 50 and developed it for 10 minutes at 20C in DD-X 1+4, just to make sure there would be something on the film if there was anything. The negatives are overly punchy, needing a grade 1, if I ever were to make pictures of tulip tree flowers.
So it is not the DD-X that was the problem. That is good!
Could it be the 5 minute pre-wash in Copenhagen tap water? That sounds unlikely. It worked fine with the other non-Delta films. Did I forget the DD-X and just develop in water? No, because I distinctly remember using the same pitcher for the 1+9 mix as I used today. Did I do 1+90? No, it was 900+100ml – I am sure.
Should I, tomorrow morning, expose a Delta film and repeat today’s folly? I am tempted …. but maybe it is just one of those things. Life goes on.
As regards Stand Development, in the future I will do this in secret and refrain from reporting more about this here. Maybe one day, when I have conquered uneven development and sorted out the pros and cons, I will write another thread. I was surprised at the tone of some of the responses here. Niall Ferguson may be right.