Sticky goo on film

Jerevan · Sep 22, 2006

I searched a bit on different things I could think of, but found nothing worthwhile.

I have developed some films today in a Paterson tank with plastic reels, both small (Efke 100 in Rodinal, normal agitation for 12 minutes) and medium format (Ilford FP4 plus, minimal agitation, 1:100 Rodinal for an hour). I did a two minute presoak on all of it.

The Efke films suffered a lot from some sticky goop (emulsion?) in the end of the rolls, some of them in both ends. The Ilford had also some slightly sticky goo, but here on the outer edges of the film. The medium format films have been laying around in plastic bag for between 2 and 5 years, while the Efke is bulkloaded and fresh.

Is it me not fixing enough (3-4 minutes) or is the rinse too short (10 minutes)? Agitation problems? Can I refix them and hope it goes away?

reellis67 · Sep 22, 2006

Can you provide a little description of the goo? If we knew the color and consistency of it, it might help to figure out some possibilities.

- Randy

Cliff · Sep 22, 2006

Jerevan said:
I searched a bit on different things I could think of, but found nothing worthwhile.

I have developed some films today in a Paterson tank with plastic reels, both small (Efke 100 in Rodinal, normal agitation for 12 minutes) and medium format (Ilford FP4 plus, minimal agitation, 1:100 Rodinal for an hour). I did a two minute presoak on all of it.

The Efke films suffered a lot from some sticky goop (emulsion?) in the end of the rolls, some of them in both ends. The Ilford had also some slightly sticky goo, but here on the outer edges of the film. The medium format films have been laying around in plastic bag for between 2 and 5 years, while the Efke is bulkloaded and fresh.

Is it me not fixing enough (3-4 minutes) or is the rinse too short (10 minutes)? Agitation problems? Can I refix them and hope it goes away?

Did you cut the tape off the end ?
Cliff

Jon Shiu · Sep 22, 2006

Could it be some kind of fixer residue? I wonder how you could test for that and why it might occur.

Jon

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Sep 22, 2006

I once had some green, Fuji goo on my Neopan because two portions of the film were sticking to each other. I was using SS reels and unexperimented. Did you check for uneven development across the film strip?

Jerevan · Sep 23, 2006

Thanks,

I left the tape on all of the MF rolls, and some of the Magic tape I used for the bulkloaded Efke may have been left on.

The goo was dark (as dark as the emulsion in the developed frames) and it stuck to the clothespins, leaving marks and a clear spot of film base. Slightly slimy feel to my fingers when I touched it.

The frames in themselves look okay, apart from that they are taken in very different light levels and some are underexposed, etc.

All of the MF rolls has the residue. The goo is most pronounced on the roll sitting at the bottom of the tank, while the topmost is almost clean. Incidentally the topmost is a two year old roll, while the bottom one is at least seven years. Wish I had a scanner you could show it - a picture goes a long way of explaining.

It's no big deal - if I don't find any solution, I'll just move on and do some more, giving an even more thorough rinse, fix and wash.

glbeas · Sep 23, 2006

Sounds like a need for a hardening fixer, seems to me thats emulsion on the verge of liquifying.

Ole · Sep 23, 2006

Some 120 films have a coloured soft gelatin antihalation layer on the back of the film. This is supposed to dissolve in processing, but doesn't always.

Some films also have a soft gelatin protective layer on top of the emulsion, which again is supposed to dissolve in processing but doesn't always.

It could be one of those - if it's dark, my guess would be it's anti-halation layer. The cure would be better agitation during washing.

Jerevan · Sep 23, 2006

Thanks for the suggestions,

I'll cut the tape off, agitate a bit more during the wash and keep an eye on uneven development. The fixer contains ammonium thiosulfate and boric (?) acid, so I am not sure if that is a hardening one. I am running out of it anyways and I'll use Ilfords Rapid fixer next time.

Apart from the goo - it's easy to love medium format film...

fschifano · Sep 24, 2006

The fixer you are using doesn't appear to have a hardening agent incorporated. From reading posts here, and the experience of a friend who uses Efke films almost exclusively, a hardener is required for these films. Time to switch to a fixer that either has a hardener incorporated or is compatible with a hardener that you can add to it. Kodak's powdered fixer is a standard old fashiond sodium thiosufate fixer that has a hardener incorporated. You might want to give that a try. Ilford makes two ammonium thiosulfate rapid fixer in liquid conentrate formulae. "Hypam" is compatible with a hardener, "Rapid Fixer" is not. There are lots of other brands of fixers out there as well. Some have hardeners incorporated, some do not. If you are intent on mixing your own, a quick internet search should bring up several choices.

Sticky goo on film

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