dellanohl

Thank you for your suggestion! Since I first posted, I have developed another student roll of T-Max 400 using the same equipment and technique as the first with the only difference being it was shot with the school's Vivtar camera instead of the Nikon N65. This second roll of T-Max loaded perfectly on the tank reel and negatives are normal.

Hi, Joel. Until this semester the school's darkroom hasn't been in use for over a decade. The stainless steel reels discovered in the room looked as if they had been dropped at one time or another so I was reluctant to use them. I brought in the plastic reel tank I had used in my home darkroom to test the school's cameras. The tests were conducted with Ilford HP-5 film and each test came out normal. I loaded the camera for the student according to the manual found on-line.

Thank you for your response, Alan Marcus! I've encountered a dull black/gray bar from improper tank loading before. I found examples of this while clearing out and restoring the school's darkroom. Is a shiny black bar the characteristic of this problem with current T-Max film? I'm working with a variety of older film cameras found in the school's resurrected darkroom. I tested each camera with my go-to Ilford film and processed the rolls in my home darkroom with good results. I brought this same tank to school for the student's use. Since we are located in Wisconsin, the students have endured extreme weather. Perhaps this was a factor as well. Yet, I loaned by Canon F1 loaded with Ilford HP5 to a student which, when returned. had been left in a car overnight during sub freezing temperatures. This did not affect the resulting negatives. The T-Max rolls are newly purchased and the turn-around shooting time from the student was a maximum of 3 days. I'm wondering if it would it be better to ask the school to stock Ilford film?

I am currently assisting with B&W photography and darkroom techniques taught to high school students. The first exposed film brought in for processing was a factory loaded Kodak T-Max 400 35mm roll. Right out of the cassette the film curved outward (counterclockwise) instead of the usual inward (clockwise) curl I've encountered in the past. It unraveled quickly off the spool and fought being loaded onto a tank reel. The resulting negatives consisted of a long black bar running the length of the film with a few gaps of faint latent imagery. Has anyone else encountered this problem? Was this roll loaded wrong at the factory? I normally use Ilford film so I'm wondering if the stiff, oddly curling T-Max roll is a normal characteristic and something I and the students are going to encounter with future incoming exposed rolls.