Where is my mistake??

Hi,

I'd appreciate your help/opinion. Noobie question: what went wrong here?



Let me explain.

I went to a trip and shot six 135-rolls, different types. In two of them, I have got results like the one shown above. Not all negatives within the same bad roll show that "patterning" but mostly do. I cant understand what I am doing wrong...

The photo above is from an Ilford PAN 400, shot at 400. I developed this roll in a tank together with a second roll of PAN 400@400. All negatives from the second roll were just very-fine - therefore, I thought, perhaps I make no mistake developing these films. Note that both rolls are almost new, far from being expired. I stored them in a fridge, and took them out only for the trip. So, to say, identical conditions for both films, still... one is good and the other one is just bad.

I have used D-76 1+1 for 13 mins at 20C. Then, Uncle Mort's stopper. Then, A-300 fixer (5 mins). Washing, etc.
The problem is not in the scanning. I can see the problem clearly with my eyes already in the negatives.

Any suggestion?
Much appreciated.

I would suggest the top roll in the tank has slipped up the center column into the froth on top of the developer for part of the development time.

Be sure to give tank a good solid rap on workbench after agitation to make sure reels have slipped to bottom.

Its also possible you have too little developer in tank but I would have thought that would give a much more marked line through negative.

Given the strange lines in the darker parts of the picture, I would say that Rob is right - I think the light lines in the print (dark lines on the negative) are where developer was running down the film while the reel was above the liquid.

I do not know.

Welcome to APUG

+1

Thanks everyone. I found the reason thanks to your comments.

At first I tought... nope cant be... the rolls are well secured inside the tank... and certainly I am very careful using the proper amount of liquids. But...

Last week, in one of those cheap Chinese shops, I found nice flasks w/ measuring scale, meant for cooking. They were just perfect for me, for replacing my old ones. And very cheap too. Bought a set of 3. Well... I have just found out that the scale of those flasks is ca. 10-20% off!!!! That is I was using a significantly lower amount of developer (fixer, stopper, etc), indeed.

D'oh.

Now you know why they were cheap

Actually kind of an interesting effect in the lower part of that picture, though of course that's not what you were after. Still....

I never liked hearing my reels slide up and down when agitating. I cut several little pieces of 3/4" PVC pipe and marked them for my various tanks and reel sizes. I slide them over the fill tube after I load the reels into the tanks, and now my reels stay put!

M Carter said:

I never liked hearing my reels slide up and down when agitating. I cut several little pieces of 3/4" PVC pipe and marked them for my various tanks and reel sizes. I slide them over the fill tube after I load the reels into the tanks, and now my reels stay put!

Click to expand...

I fill the empty space with empty reels so that the reel or reels with film do not slide around.