Streaking due to developer always?

[Thomas Bertilsson]

I had a mishap where my agitation got interrupted by losing the little twisty pin that goes into the tank to rotate the reels. Instead I relied on just rotating the entire tank. Not ideal, but I had already poured the developer in.
Is this a likely cause of streaking?
At the same time, I was dealing with near exhausted fixer. Is that ever a cause for streaking? I can't imagine it would be, but I'm not sure.

This is just out of curiosity. I did get a roll of film streaked, but not beyond the point it cannot be printed. I now realize the importance of consistency of keeping chemicals fresh, and agitation patterns.

Film was FP4+ @ EI 250 in Diafine two bath developer (fresh), and alkaline fixer from Fine Art Photo Supply (which normally clears a film strip in about 1m30s, and now took upwards 2m30s to do that).

Thankful for insight,

- Thom

 

[gnashings]

I assume you are using a Paterson tank from your mention of the little wand?
I have never used diafine - but all the other developers I have used, I often agitated swirling the tank like you would ice in a drink - and have never had streaking or any uneven development, overdevelopment of areas or anything undesired. Actually, I find my little swirling was a good, gentle method of agitating for combos requiring long-ish times.

The only tiger stripes I ever got came from light leaks - bad fixer I have had, but it just seemed to give me abnormally purple negs...

Make sure your reels are very clean and very dry - those little grooves in the plastic reels are a trap for any remnants of your last session... and seem to never dry.

 

[argus]

Defenitely caused by insufficient fixing.
Refix the film with fresh brew and wash. The streaking should be gone.


G

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the help. Re-fixing has saved my hinderparts many times before. I have got to stock up on fresh fixer, and keep a few rounds at the house.

- Thom

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Well, I refixed the film, and I still have the streaks. Soaked the film for 5 minutes in plain water before refix (freshly mixed fixer, cleared a film strip in less than 60s).

Any other ideas? I'm still thinking it's in the developing phase. Or, assuming that the streaks are made up of unexposed silver, perhaps it got exposed when hung to dry?