What happened to my film? (help)

The top roll processed in a two roll tank didn't develop fully. You

can tell that there are exposures there, but mainly the negatives are

dark. There is a dark line going down the middle and some exposures

are developed more than others. The first half of the roll is worse

than the 2nd half. Any idea what happened here?

 

Film is bulk loaded Tri-X 400 developed in HC-110, fixed in Kodak

powder (last of batch). The bottom roll is developed perfectly.

Either there wasn't enough solution or there wasn't enough liquid to cover two rolls - like 15/16 oz for 2-135.

If that were the case, wouldn't I be experiencing 1/2 the roll dark and the other properly developed?

 

>> The first half of the roll is worse than the 2nd half. Any idea what happened here?

 

What I meant here is that the first 12 or so exposures are dark, the rest are properly developed. Some frames are properly developed while others are not.

 

Its not a light leak in the camera because I've taken and developed rolls after this one was shot.

If you're saying that certain frames on a single roll are satisfactory while other frames are too light or dark the most likely cause is exposure error. This would be due to metering error, mistakes in setting the shutter speed and aperture, or failure of the shutter to match the nominal speed.

 

Occasionally film will overlap on the developing reel in such a way that certain frames are not processed correctly. But this virtually never occurs in such an even, precise manner that it would affect only certain frames and not adjacent frames. The frames ruined by this error in loading the film are produced randomly

Are you using a plastic tank for your development ? If so, is it possible that the center column was not in place or there was

a light leak around that ? Dark negative would indicate a light

leak (not lack of development) and the ineer part of the top reel is more likely to be fogged than the rest of the reels (this can be verified if the top part of the top roll is more heavyly fogged.)

If you used a flash for some of the pictures and your shutter speed was too high you would get completely blank frames.

Dear Michael,

 

"...the negatives are dark."

 

Are they dark because the emulsion is dense (probable light leak/film handling problem)? Are they dark because the anti-halation layer has not been removed (re-fix, use hypo clearing agent and modify agitation technique)?

 

The "...dark line..." makes me think that something might have gotten lodged in your camera on the emulsion side allowing light to leak from exposure to exposure, and then cleared itself out. Possibly a stray piece of film cut off while bulk loading.

 

These are, of course, wild guesses.<g>

 

Neal Wydra

>>Are they dark because the anti-halation layer has not been removed re-fix, use hypo clearing agent and modify agitation technique)?

 

I think this may be the culprit. The entire negative is dense while the bottom roll is thinner. I hope that refix will solve my problem. I'll try again later tonight. Thanks to everyone.