Newbie question regarding curled film strips after development

Last night I have developed a roll of HP5 at home and the am happy

with the result of it but after I have taken away the weight clip

which I have attached to the end of the film for hanging dry the

developed film, the film immediately coiled itself back into a single

roll.

 

Having finally able to cut it down into six strips with the help of

another person and inserted them into film sleever bag. I left it

under a stack of heavy books over the night trying to flatten it otu

but seems like it is only flattened by a very small amount this

morning and are not still not good enough for scanning.

 

Here is how I developed the film:

 

Tank : Agfa daylight developing tank Rondinax 35U

Film : Ilford 35mm HP5

 

Develop : 5.5 mins @ 20C

Water bath : Tap water @23C fill and discard 5 times

Fixer : 10 mins @ 20C

Wash : Tap water @23C 10 mins with 3 drops of wetting agent added for

final wash

Dry : Hanged dry with the cool fan approx 4 feet away from the

hanging film. (Took approx. 15 mins)

 

I am wondering if there is any procedural mistakes during my

development leading to such curled film strips or is it a common

problem with hand developed film and is there a quick / easy cure for

it?

 

Any advise will be appericated !

 

Seto

did you weigh down the end? with a heavy paper clip or some other binding object. something to weigh down the end and stretch out the film?

also you can add a hardener to your fixer or some other agent to the hypo stage. something like that.

I did use a clip with weight to it while hanging it dry.

The film will not dry in 15 minutes without heat. Let it hang for an hour or so, or until it doesn't curl when you remove the weight. Commercially processed film curls because they wind it up before it's completely dry - time is money.

I've never run into this, but then I've never tried to dry film that fast. As I'm running E-6, which takes at least 40 minutes for the process, by the time I've loaded up the next tank and run the next batch through, the first batch has had well over an hour hanging in front of a filtered cool air flow. When I pull the weights off it barely shows any curl at all.

 

I'd suggest rerunning that final wash, 10-15 minutes with a little PhotoFlo, and then hanging the film (weighted) for a couple of hours before taking it down.

 

If I need to take it down before I'm ready to mount, I roll it up in about a four-inch diameter coil and put it in a ZipLoc sandwich bag to keep it clean and safe. At least with the Fuji slide films I run it doesn't seem to take much of a set from that, even after several days.

 

Van

As you've already cut it, I'd suggest that washing it and re-hanging it would be problematic - unless you've got lots of film clips handy! In the future, I'd use a little wetting agent on the wet film first (once it's come out the fix) then weight it and let it dry somewhere warm for at least 30 min's to an hour before taking it down. Don't leave it anywhere too hot though, otherwise it may coil up the other way and you'll be left with a really long tube of film.

 

Otherwise your technique for developing sounds spot-on.

Happy snapping!

Seems like I will have to hang it for drying a bit longer in the future.

 

Any suggestion as to what is the best air tempeture for drying ? I think I did it at around 24 C last night. I am living in Hong Kong and room temp. over the year could range between 15 - 30. How about hudmitity? to what extend will it affect drying and result?

Photoflow acts like an humectant, reducing the effects of humidity on film. For most of us, the climate is dry much of the year, which causes more problems with film curl, cupping and static. In an humid environment, you should have no problem if you dry the film at room temperature.

 

If you use heat with the film under tension, the gelatin gets set in a super-dry condition, and may curl or cup in the opposite direction under humid conditions.

First, it is not very advisable to use a fan or hairdryer for drying film. Both devices do not filter the air and will shoot dust particles at the film.

 

Second, maybe you can get a dry film surface in 15min but the emulsion will not be completely dry - there still will be a lot of humidity in the emulsion.

 

I always use a film detergent (Agfa Agepon, Photoflu will be similar) as the last bath (for 1 min approx), never use a sponge or squegee and swing the film reel to get rid of some of the water. Then I let the films hang down, with a rather heavy steel clip on the lower end, for at least several hours. I never had any curling problems, and no problems with water stains or stripes.

 

A friend once used either Maco or Efke film and found that this film has an awful tendency to curling. He let one of these films hang with a heavy clips for several weeks and it was still curling.

On another roll of film , I hanged it with a heavy clip for 10 hours , but it is still curling quite badly, what else could I try?

 

Did I fix it for too long?

Sometimes film just doesn't want to co-operate huh?

I dont know why your film is curling that badly since I've only heard of that happening with very old film. (I have slow 2002 film and it still develops flat)

 

Since you said you will be scanning the film, maybe you should consider wet mounting then.

 

If you have a dedicated film scanner then most will have a glass sandwich mount available.

 

If you're using a flat bed then pickup some Kami or 99%+ Isopropyl Alcohol and a thin sheet of plate glass. Newton glass isn't really required since you're wet mounting, but would be prefered.

 

I store all my film in frozen rolls, so IF I do happen to need to rescan one roll, to say the least they retain their rigid shape and wet mounting works the for me.