williaty
9-Jun-2016, 21:14
I need your help troubleshooting a problem with a roll of film and it’s going to be a doozy because there’s no known-working parts. It's with medium format film but I am hoping you guys will forgive that since you're one of the last places on the net to ask about developing problems where you can expect to get educated answers. I’m coming back to film photography after a long absence (we never broke up, we just took a 13 year vacation). So it’s a film I’ve never used before, a camera I’ve never used before, developing in a place I’ve never worked before, and all new chemistry and equipment. Here’s what I can tell you about the process:
1) Film is Ilford FP4+ that expired around the same time as the Y2K Bug. I think it was refrigerated for most of that time.
2) Camera is a new-to-me Mamiya RZ67 kit with 3 lenses and a two backs. This problem occurred with all 3 lenses on this roll but (obviously) only one film back was used. I have shot only 3 other rolls with this camera kit but none of them had homogeneous areas where this problem would be visible (all forest scenes) so I don’t know if it afflicted them as well.
3) Developer is XTOL from the 5L dry packets mixed with tap water (city water, slightly hard). Developer was mixed as per directions for temp and volumes. Only slightly weird thing was that there was a tiny bit of very coarse precipitate on the bottom of the mixing vessel. Not fine like powder. Coarse like corn meal. There was probably a dozen grains around 1mm in diameter. These never dissolved even though I waited. Developer was then poured into individual glass bottles. This roll was run about 3 hours after the XTOL was mixed from powder.
4) Film was developed in XTOL 1:1 at 20C for 10 minutes. Inversion was standard (first minute, then 10 seconds each minute).
5) Film was given a 1 minute stop bath in citric acid mixed from powder at 10g per L with tap water.
6) Film was fixed in Photographer’s Formulary TF-5 diluted 1:4 with tap water at 20C for for 4 minutes with standard inversions.
7) Film was washed for 5 minutes in running tap water at 20C.
8) Film was scanned on Epson V850. Contrast was increased in PS with Levels to make the mottling clearer.
Example 1 shows the problem on a building which obviously should not have this texture.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7431/27296775900_de2078d688_b.jpg
Example 2 shoes a HIGHLY contrast-amplified section of sky that was high white overcast. You can see where typical cloud texture gives way to weird fibrous problem texture.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7566/27539374096_02c6aeb8ce_b.jpg
Can anyone tell me what’s going on here?
1) Film is Ilford FP4+ that expired around the same time as the Y2K Bug. I think it was refrigerated for most of that time.
2) Camera is a new-to-me Mamiya RZ67 kit with 3 lenses and a two backs. This problem occurred with all 3 lenses on this roll but (obviously) only one film back was used. I have shot only 3 other rolls with this camera kit but none of them had homogeneous areas where this problem would be visible (all forest scenes) so I don’t know if it afflicted them as well.
3) Developer is XTOL from the 5L dry packets mixed with tap water (city water, slightly hard). Developer was mixed as per directions for temp and volumes. Only slightly weird thing was that there was a tiny bit of very coarse precipitate on the bottom of the mixing vessel. Not fine like powder. Coarse like corn meal. There was probably a dozen grains around 1mm in diameter. These never dissolved even though I waited. Developer was then poured into individual glass bottles. This roll was run about 3 hours after the XTOL was mixed from powder.
4) Film was developed in XTOL 1:1 at 20C for 10 minutes. Inversion was standard (first minute, then 10 seconds each minute).
5) Film was given a 1 minute stop bath in citric acid mixed from powder at 10g per L with tap water.
6) Film was fixed in Photographer’s Formulary TF-5 diluted 1:4 with tap water at 20C for for 4 minutes with standard inversions.
7) Film was washed for 5 minutes in running tap water at 20C.
8) Film was scanned on Epson V850. Contrast was increased in PS with Levels to make the mottling clearer.
Example 1 shows the problem on a building which obviously should not have this texture.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7431/27296775900_de2078d688_b.jpg
Example 2 shoes a HIGHLY contrast-amplified section of sky that was high white overcast. You can see where typical cloud texture gives way to weird fibrous problem texture.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7566/27539374096_02c6aeb8ce_b.jpg
Can anyone tell me what’s going on here?