Underdevloped Xtol

[poppers]

I have just developed a roll of tri-x 400 35 mm I developed in straight xtol. It was about 19 degrees C So i gave an extra half minute of so to compensate which may not have been enough. The xtol was in a 500ml air tight bottle that i mixed up a few months back. When i got the negs out of the fix they were very dark and low contrast.

They were shot outside on a January day in the north west UK. At first i though they may have been underdeveloped but one of the exposures seems spot on and this was shot indoors so I wonder then if the outdoor pictures were underexposed and the meter had been fooled by the bright sky.

I used and M6 and 50 mm f2 lens. When i scanned they roll they were very grey and had lots of grain and didn't seem very sharp apart from the indoor shot. I'm also wondering if it's the fixer that's exhausted.

It seems odd that just one shot came out right and that happens to be shot indoors. I metered for the shadows so as not to let the sky influence my reading too much.

I'm at work at the moment with no access to examples.

 

[removed account4]

hi poppers

have you used this camera, film and developer combination before in other situations
and the film came out OK ? mixed lighting can be difficult sometimes and compensating
by adding a stop or 2 inside because of out door light, can sometimes lead to a window tha tis so dense
you can't print through it ( BTDT ). at least with xtol you have its softness working for you in that situation.
i used it for several years ( xtol ) and was never able to get negatives with good density or contrast out of it no matter what i did ..
i eventually moved to something on. good luck ! ( maybe shoot another roll and bracket your exposures and see how that goes, bracketing can be your friend )

john

 

[mnemosyne]

"very dark and low contrast negatives" sounds contradictory or at least as if something is not right. My best guess is that you underfixed. But please post pictures of the actual negs (not scans) including rebate, everything else is just wild guessing.

 

[poppers]

Thanks John, i have used it before and last time i really liked the results. I switched to Xtol as it's supposed to be low hazard and it keeps my paranoia at bay having small children in the house. Perhaps i'll try another film and see what happens there or take an incident reading and compare it with my camera.

 

[poppers]

i'll try and post a picture of the neg when i get home.

 

[poppers]

here is a shot of the negs

 

[mnemosyne]

By "dark negative" you meant "thin negative", I supppose? That explains some of the initial confusion on my side. For me a "dark negative" is a "dense negative" (lots of exposure/development).
What I see so far looks mostly like underexposure. But the pic you posted is blurred and therefore difficult to judge. A nice sharp pic against a uniformly lit background (white computer display ...) with the rebate information (frame numbers) clearly visible would make things much easier ...

 

[poppers]

sorry are these any better i'm having trouble finding a lens that focuses close.

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

I agree with others... probably not completely fixed.

 

[bdial]

Looks fogged to me.

 

[poppers]

thanks everyone for taking the time to help me.

 

[StephenT]

I didn't see any rebate information - is it not on any of the frames?

 

[Sirius Glass]

The rebate information is in the posted photographs. Faint, but it is there.

 

[mnemosyne]

From what can be told from these pictures, the density of the negatives seems to be in the normal range. However, as others have already indicated, it appears there are some darker zones along the area of the perforation and this area normally should be perfectly clear base. In your case this was either fogged by a light leak or it is retained silver halide caused by underfixing (exhausted fixer, lack of agitation, too low temperature ...). Developed silver from a light leak appears black if you look straight at the surface of the film (without twisting it). Retained silver halide from insufficient fixing will usually have a more milky appearance. If unsure you could simply try a refix with fresh fixer and see if the film clears.