processing problems

[armentor1@mac.com]

I just finished processing my first round of adox 50 fim in the adox 49 dev. Not sure why but it looks as though the silver has been tarnished?? I haven't had a chance to make a print but they also look solarized. I don't think there were any light leaks throughout the process. Has anyone experienced this?

I should mention that these exposures were long 3min up to 45min.

Thanks
dave

[Vaughn]

Some processing info would be nice (what chemicals, how fresh, how long, processing method, etc).

It sounds like incomplete fixing - a wild guess based on limited info.

Vaughn

[armentor1@mac.com]

I should mention that I've had this problem in the past.

this morning I mixed a fresh batch of of developer Atomal 49 and tested the fix with hypo clear, which checked out fine.

The last time this happened i figured I didn't fix long enough (5 min.), so I fixed 10min today.

What is so frustrating about this problem is that it is not consistent; I'll process a few sheets and they will look fine, then a few days later I'll get solarized negatives.

Method:

(tray processed)
wash 4 min
dev. 1:2 13 min
fix 10 min
Final wash 30 min
photo flow 30 sec

[Jay DeFehr]

I suspect your fixer. If you have a lot of dissolved silver sludge in your bottle, you might be ok for the first session, but when the sludge gets stirred up it deposits on the film, which might explain the intermittency of the problem. Mix fresh fixer and see if the problem disappears.

[Vaughn]

...this morning I mixed a fresh batch of of developer Atomal 49 and tested the fix with hypo clear, which checked out fine...

I assume you meant Hypo Chek, not Hypo Clear(ing Agent).

Hypo Chek only checks for silver concentration. Old age and contamination will not be shown by testing with Hypo Chek. Try fixing out a scrap piece of film and see how long it takes to clear -- then double that time for your film.

The fact that the "solarization" happens over time, leads me to believe that your film is getting only partially fixed.

I agree with Jay -- try fresh fixer (if you do not want to do the above test.)

[armentor1@mac.com]

thanks guys, i'll try this tonight.
dave

[chassis]

The comments able raise the question for me regarding how to check for fixer exhaustion.

When developer starts to go past yellow and into brown, I throw it out. Stop bath turns purple (if using indicator stop bath), but I haven't experienced a way to verify if fixer is good or not.

Besides length of time (age), how can fixer life be measured or indicated?

[polyglot]

The comments able raise the question for me regarding how to check for fixer exhaustion.

When developer starts to go past yellow and into brown, I throw it out. Stop bath turns purple (if using indicator stop bath), but I haven't experienced a way to verify if fixer is good or not.

Besides length of time (age), how can fixer life be measured or indicated?

By measuring the clearing-time on a film offcut. With fresh fixer, it will take some amount of time, T, which will be about a minute depending on the film. When you test later and the clearing time has become 2*T, the fixer is exhausted. Regardless of how much life is in your fixer, you should always fix for at least 2x the current clearing time (so 2*T with fresh fixer, 4*T with fixer you're about to discard).

TMAX films need to be fixed longer (usually 8 minutes) and will destroy fixer about twice as quickly as traditional films.