Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/01/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]As it turns out I must have mislabeled the fixer and the developer. After receiving great tips from various LUGGERS I've not had the problem again and my negatives are not only usable but improving as I get the touch back. But yes it was quite the disappointment after so many years to come up empty handed on the first roll. On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 18:44:28 +1100, Alastair Firkin <firkin@ncable.net.au> wrote: > Once this happened to me: I had a very "important" film, so I decided > to wash it in hotter water: washed the emulsion clean away: as a 13 > year old, I will never forget the way the emulsion stayed in the tub as > I pulled the clear film out :-( > > On 09/01/2005, at 4:51 PM, Marc Osborne wrote: > > > Hello everyone, > > > > After a 10 year hiatus I decided to dust off the darkroom equipment > > and start doing some B&W shooting, developing, and printing again. I > > went to the local camera store and bought Sprint developer, stop bath, > > and fixer. This is a local company, based in Rhode Island, that I > > remember as making fairly good products, already in liquid form, so > > the final mix was alway easy to do. > > > > I never had a problem through the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. I used my > > father's (now mine) IIIf and generally Kodak film and chemicals so > > ending up with a completely transparent roll of film was very > > disappointing. Here was my process: > > Loading the film onto the Patterson tank was no problem. I had > > complete darkness. > > Chemicals all at 68 degrees fahrenheit. > > Sprint recommended time for Tri-X 400 was 10 minutes. Poured in the > > diluted 1:9 developer and agitated and knocked off bubbles as per > > standard photography book and patterson tank sheet recommendation. > > Poured out developer back into what I thought was empty developer > > bottle. > > Poured in properly diluted stop bath > > REALIZED I might have poured developer into fixer bottle:( > > Poured out stop bath and ran downstairs to remix fixer...lost maybe 2 > > to 3 minutes in doing so. At that time the stop bath had been poured > > back into it's proper container but the roll of film was undoubtedly > > still dripping with it. > > Poured in fixer and agitated for three minutes. > > Poured out fixer and washed for 30 minutes. > > Mixed bottle cap of photo-flo with 1 quart of water. > > After 30 minutes of washing and occasional agitation poured out water, > > poured in photo-flo and thought it was pretty darn bubbly. Agitated > > for a minute, made it more bubbly, poured it ouf, poured in more water > > to get rid of bubbles. > > Pulled film off the reel and looked right through it. Completely > > transparent end to end. > > > > This was not the return to my glory years of B&W that I had foreseen. > > I just bought an M2 to I could gradually retire the IIIf and make use > > of all the advances of the M series. But this was a rude shock. Please > > help. Where did I go wrong? Was it the interval between the stop bath > > and the fixer? Could the Sprint chemicals have been on the shelf too > > long? I don't know where to start again. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Marc > > _______________________________________________ > > Leica Users Group. > > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > > > Alastair > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >