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What is this residue on my newly developed negs??

10speeduk

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May 8, 2012
Messages
158
Location
Ash, Kent
Format
Medium Format
Hi all, I am developing Fomapan 100 in xtol 1:1 in a patterson Autotherm. This tales 4 sheets of film at a time. Some of my negatives usually 2 of the 4 come out with a strange swirly residue that ruins the picture. Any ideas what it is or how to avoid it?

My xtol is used as a one shot, the fixer is C41 fixer. Although I reuse this, the fixer clears a negative in 1 minute when tested today. My process is presoak x3, dev, stop (reusing a stop), fix. then lots of washing. I dry them indoors on a piece of kitchen towel.

 
You dry negs on a piece of kitchen towel? Why not hang?
 
frank said:
You dry negs on a piece of kitchen towel? Why not hang?
Click to expand...
Hi Frank. I prop them against the wall on the top edge with the bottom edge on the kitchen towel. Seems to work fine. I used some white spirit to wipe the residue off the negative and ran it under a hot tap. Seems to be fine now but not sure what is causing it!

 
Any visible stuff floating around in the chemistry, especially the stop and fix which you are reusing?
Are you using a rinse agent (Photo-flo or similar) after the wash?
 

Ah, sorry. I interpreted your post to say laying them flat!

For your final rinse, try using distiller water with a bit of photoflo.
 
I live in a rural area and my tap water comes from well water from a supplier who only has 300 customers. I would never use my unfiltered tap water for anything other than bathing, washing clothes, watering plants and flushing my toilet. There's far too much junk in my tap water to use it for film processing. Just sharing my personal experience...
 
frank said:
Ah, sorry. I interpreted your post to say laying them flat!

For your final rinse, try using distiller water with a bit of photoflo.
Click to expand...

I agreewith the distilledor demineralized water rinse. Also;if you have hard water in Kentyou may want to add 0.5 g/l of Calgon to your HCA.photocalgon is best;check with Silver Print in London but,regular Calgon will do in a pinch. it will prevent calcium scum from settling on your negatives
 
My chiltrens water is real hard with calcium carbonate coming out of solution & boiling and then filtering when cool for final bath is simplest solution.

Add lots of surfant as well

But for 120 and 35mm I need to use a film squeegee post hanging up in clips which if you clean it before every use has not scratched in ten years yet.

The other option is moving house.
 

Get rid of the kitchen towel and never ever use white spirit on a negative. Don't wipe the negs but just dunk them in some de-ionised water for about 30 seconds after washing and then hang them to dry in ambient temperature for a few hours (be patient).
 
Thanks all for your information and help. I will implement your advice. Paul
 
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