Tri X 400 Developing

ww12345 · Oct 27, 2013

Why did the film turn out like this? It looks like it was overdeveloped, but I wondered what trained professional opinions might be...

The film is Kodak Tri X 400, in a 100' bulk roll I was given that expired in 1986. I exposed and metered for 400 ISO, and thought I cut my normal 100 ISO developing time enough, but what do you think? The sprockets even came out tinged grey...

BMbikerider · Oct 27, 2013

Not a trained professional view but one with over 50 yrs experience. This is typical of film that is well past it's use by date and has not been kept in the best of places. Possibly close to a heat source. It doesn't have to be a source which is hot, just one that is above the ambient room temp. Possible the heavier fogging was the side nearest to the heat which has made it fog even heavier

Red Tractors · Oct 27, 2013

Agreed, Look at it this way, you got images on free film that expired 27 years ago, so, not bad overall.

Thomas Bertilsson · Oct 27, 2013

Yes, that is called 'age fog' and results from film being stored way past its expiration date.

My recommendation, especially if you are new at this, is to buy fresh film. That way you will learn what your developed film should look like, and you can then move on to deal with the uncertainty that way expired materials throw at you.

ww12345 · Oct 27, 2013

Thanks for all the advice. I'm not too "new" to this; I've done my own bulk loading and B/W developing before, just never with 400 speed film. I just wondered if I was doing something wrong. Now that I know that it is just due to the age of the material, I'll work around it. I'll also buy a bulk roll of new stock 400 speed film...

Thomas Bertilsson · Oct 27, 2013

ww12345 said:
Thanks for all the advice. I'm not too "new" to this; I've done my own bulk loading and B/W developing before, just never with 400 speed film. I just wondered if I was doing something wrong. Now that I know that it is just due to the age of the material, I'll work around it. I'll also buy a bulk roll of new stock 400 speed film...

Cool. Good luck, and have fun!

For your information, 400 film doesn't look significantly different from slower speed films if you just look at the negatives. Keep in mind that all in all 400 speed film will have less inherent contrast than most ISO 100 (or lower) films, which means you will have to experiment a little with film exposure and film development to reach a similar negative contrast in both speeds.

GarageBoy · Oct 28, 2013

Always wanted to know what high base fog looked like

Athiril · Oct 28, 2013

If you don't like it, you can either, decrease development time to develop the fog to a lower level and increase exposure to compensate, or add some restrainer to the developer and increase developing time.

ww12345 · Oct 28, 2013

Oh, ok. Cool - thanks for the tips on how to decrease the fog. Would half the time on development be sufficient? What about exposure compensation - maybe 2 stops over and half time development?

Nuff · Oct 28, 2013

From the little bit of reading around that I have done. HC110 is a good developer for old expired B&W films. Ast it should help with keeping the base fog under control. Good luck.

Fixcinater · Oct 28, 2013

I've done some expired TMAX 100 and 400 that I bought from a source that didn't know the storage history. It was in a dollar store when I bought it, so it was cheap enough to experiment.

As for the HC110 as a good-for-suppressing base fog developer, it's a bit better than rolls I did in D76, but it is not the *huge* difference I had read about.

Chris Livsey · Oct 29, 2013

Try adding around 5ml per 500ml 1% Benzotriazole to the developer.

Tri X 400 Developing

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