Tmax 100 with HC110 is mottled

djkloss · May 16, 2006

I developed two rolls of Tmax 100 in HC110 dilution B at 70 degrees and they came out mottled. Is that due to HC110 being 'high energy'?

Thanks.....

Dorothy

df cardwell · May 16, 2006

No, it's from something else.

(And HC-110 is not higher energy than any other developer)

How is it mottled ? Have you had good results with this combination before ?

d

bill schwab · May 16, 2006

I agree with Don. You've got some other ghost in the machine. Any chance film was sticking together in processing?

B

Gerald Koch · May 16, 2006

You didn't mention the film size. Was it 120?

reellis67 · May 16, 2006

If your development times are short you may need to pre-wet to get more even results (or so I've been told) - with any developer, not just HC-110. If the mottling is very white/grey, it is likely that your film was touching itself and it didn't get fixed (or developed) properly. If the mottling is in area like the sky, where you have a large even area of the same tonal value, then it is possible that there was too much fluid in the can and not enough agitation happened.

There are any number of reasons, but if you could attach a thumbnail image it would help narrow it down.

- Randy

djkloss · May 16, 2006

It was 35mm film. I presoaked for two minutes with agitation to eliminate the purple dye. Agitated 30 - 60 seconds (don't remember), then for 10 seconds every minute (gently), then used a water stop bath. Fixed for 5 minutes in Ilford non-hardening fixer. Looks more like grain. Never mind the composition/exposure...it was just an experiment.

Thanks...

Dorothy

MattKing · May 16, 2006

The almost looks like reticulation. What was the temperature of the pre-wet, water stop, fixer, and wash?

reellis67 · May 16, 2006

I think Matt has got it. If the temp varies too much between chemicals, the emulsion can crack causing reticulation, which looks like what you have here.

- Randy

djkloss · May 16, 2006

MattKing said:
The almost looks like reticulation. What was the temperature of the pre-wet, water stop, fixer, and wash?

Temp was 70, to start. It may have gradually dropped for each step after that. The final wash was 68

djkloss · May 16, 2006

thanks. I think I'll go back to rodinal and silver based films. never did like tmax anyway.

Gerald Koch · May 16, 2006

djkloss said:
Temp was 70, to start. It may have gradually dropped for each step after that. The final wash was 68

Not enough temperature difference to be a factor.

reellis67 · May 16, 2006

That shouldn't be enough to cause reticulation problems, at least in my experience. Was the film old, or perhaps acquired from a shop that may not have kept it from getting too hot in storage? I've never seen anything quite like this, but I'd be more suspicious of the film than of the developer - unless it was a really old bottle. Even then, HC-110 concentrate is very long lived, generaly speaking.

- Randy

Tom Hoskinson · May 16, 2006

djkloss said:
thanks. I think I'll go back to rodinal and silver based films. never did like tmax anyway.

What dilution of HC110 did you use and what kind of water did you dilute it with? If it was your tap water, have you pH tested it lately?

Are you using a well calibrated thermometer?

Two comments:

1. APUG Sponsor RH Designs sells a wonderful digital photographic thermometer at a very reasonable price - I love mine!

2. Tmax is a silver Tgrain film - with very fine grain and high acutance.

joneil · May 16, 2006

HC-110 and T-Max do not seem to "like" each other, but I've never had the mottling problem you describe. Plain old D-76 is actually the best developer around for T-Max films, any format.

When using HC-110 and any B&W film, in any format, Dilution B is waaaaay too strong I find. Weaken your solution and extend your developing times. It's a small possibility that too high a temp and too strong a solution of HC-110 *might* be the cause of your problem. Hard to say.

good luck

joe

djkloss · May 16, 2006

Wow! Certainly is a lot to think about!

Tom Hoskinson · May 16, 2006

Sorry, I missed your earlier statement that you used dilution B.

The image you posted is very pixilated and that makes it difficult to judge, but it looks overdeveloped to me.

If you diluted the HC110 with either high pH water or hot water (or both), that could give your working developer a significant activity boost.

djkloss · May 16, 2006

Tom Hoskinson said:
The image you posted is very pixilated and that makes it difficult to judge, but it looks overdeveloped to me.

If you diluted the HC110 with either high pH water or hot water (or both), that could give your working developer a significant activity boost.

Working solution was mixed at 70 deg.
My litmus paper is probably 10 years old and my garden/potting soil ph tester only works in soil. I have no idea what the ph is, but I do know the city decided to add floride. I've had other negs that didn't do this, so I'm guessing I just had a bad day. Could've been the agitation too. The image was a flat bed scan of the negative. But, I looked at the neg with a loop, and it's still bad. It's not that great of an image to fret about. I just wondered so I wouldn't do it again on something good (good neg).

Thanks for all your suggestions/comments.

Tmax 100 with HC110 is mottled

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