B&W Film Completely Blank After Processing

[Dugan]

No visible edge lettering makes me suspect that the film was processed with fixer before developer.
Catastrophic exposure error would still show edge lettering with proper development.
Development would have to have catastrophic issues to not show edge lettering...like using plain water as "developer".... Some sign of edge lettering should show up, even with weak developer.

[Corran]

At this point I would toss every chemical you own and get fresh everything.

My bet is you made the classic "fixer first" mistake and then possibly got fixer in with the unused developer, destroying it in the process. As has already been said, no edge markings mean no development.

Cut your losses and start fresh. Hope you get it worked out.

[Nigel Smith]

As I was rolling it on to a developing reel, I cut off about a 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch strip. This was used to test the Xtol and to see if it would turn transparent. Interestingly enough, it did not.

Just to pick up on this sentence. Film exposed to light (the film leader) will go black if the developer is active. I do this when using older Xtol.

[nitroplait]

If the strip test does not yield a black leader, then I strongly suspect the developers are contaminated.
I have used HC110 10+ years past expiry date stored in a half empty bottle - and it worked like fresh. 20 years may have caused some adverse effect to its potency but it would surely still form some sort of image on the film.

[EdC]

Are all the negatives from the same camera/shutter?

Virtually all of the rolls were taken with a Rolleiflex 6008i with 80mm Planar. One or two rolls might have been taken with a Rolleiflex 3.5E with 75mm Planar.

I wanted to make use of 120 film to get some good refresher practice on developing workable negatives prior to processing larger negatives.

[EdC]

With the helpful advice given, my thoughts are that the first run through with Xtol probably did involve some form of contamination or switch with fixer. I don't see how I did that, but will certainly concede that this would explain what happened, since the Xtol was mixed fresh and from a production date that should have been safe product. The fact that the test strip that I processed came out very very dark, but not opaque seems to indicate to me that it might be alright. However, the last roll that I attempted to develop with HC-110 came out transparent again as mentioned earlier, even with the use of distilled water being used to arrive at Dilution G. The HC-110 likely is at least 19 years old. Unopened until now, but still quite old. I don't want to spend any more time messing with that, so I will just order some fresh HC-110 and be done with it.

On a semi-related note, I did check my stock of Rodinal, and I have two unopened bottles and one partial. All had precipitate in the bottom of the bottles. I would estimate that this developer is at least 37 years old. While I like stretching a dollar as much as anyone, I don't want to spend time taking photos and then not be able to get good scannable negatives. So, I'll check around and see who has some in stock.

Thanks again to all! This has been helpful and has allowed me to zero in on what likely took place.

Ed

[Duolab123]

This is the beauty of analog film is one can start all over. Fresh chemistry, distilled water, fresh film etc. Go step by step and no worries.

I went through a similar situation where for some reason I failed to use the starter for color print developer. I was convinced I had bad paper. Finally dawned on me. It feels good to have an answer.