Help: blue streaks on color negatives

[h._shafi]

Hi folks,

 

I'm getting blue streaks across some negatives after development.

They don't appear to be caused by anything mechanical since they

move across the width of the film from one frame to another. I used

to get these a long time ago with 35mm film and solved it by adding

a wetting stage before the developer in the Tetenal C-41 process.

Here are the details of my setup and process:

 

- Jobo 1540 tank, CPE-2 Plus processor, temp = 100F (verified)

 

- Two 120 films at a time on two reels

 

- Fresh Tetenal C-41 chemistry (from a 5-liter kit)

 

- Film: Fuji Reala

 

- Process: 5 min dry warmup, 2 min prewet/water, 3:15 min

developer, 4:00 Blix, 6 x 0:30 min rinse cycles

 

- Chemistry volume = 500mL for all steps

 

This has occured on 3 consecutive development cycles and I'm pretty

sure that it always occurs on the top reel (with the tank's magnet

facing down). Any help would be much appreciated!

 

Thanks in advance.

 

-Haz

[discpad]

Haz, can you post a sample of some sorts? Are the blue streaks on the film as you eyeball it, or when printed (which would be yellow on the neg)?

[discpad]

Oops! Post a scan!

 

Also, does this track across a 6-8 negs, or is it on a single frame?

[h._shafi]

Hi Dan,

 

Unfortunately, I've only got a 35mm scanner, so I'll try to describe the problem in writing in more detail. The streaks cover a variable number of frames and they are blue/cyan to the naked eye and most obvious between frames. They manifest themselves as subtle bands in the printed photos. I usually crop while printing to avoid them when possible, but they've ruined some pretty nice photos... Another possible pattern is that they always start towards the leading edge of the film (when inserted into the Jobo reels for development) and tend to not exist towards the trailing edge of the roll.

 

Let me know if I can be more specific.

 

-Haz