B&W Film Completely Blank After Processing

It's been a very long time (decades) since I was able to process any black & white film. Finally had the opportunity to do so over the last couple of days, and it did not go well.

Here are the relevant facts:

TMax 100 (EI 80) roll film processed in Jobo tanks with Xtol 1:1 at 68 degrees for 9 1/3 minutes. Developer mixed immediately prior to use. Used Photographer's Formulary TF-4 fixer. Following their instructions, I washed the film with water post-development as a stop bath. The Xtol package had a date of 2019/08/09 which should be a safe production date, based on the Xtol thread that I reviewed. Chemicals were mixed with tap water run through a water softener.


Ilford FP4+ (EI 80) roll film processed in Jobo tanks with HC-110 Dilution G for 14 minutes, tank development, no rotation. Developer mixed immediately prior to use. Used Photographer's Formulary TF-4 fixer. Following their instructions, I washed the film with water post-development as a stop bath. The developer was mixed from an unopened, very old bottle of HC-110. Chemicals were mixed with tap water run through a water softener.


All of the rolls came out completely transparent, with no edge markings. From what I was able to find, this happens when there is no developer used. But, I did use developer. At any rate, this should indicate that there is no mechanical issue with the camera. I noticed that there was a purplish tint when dumping the developer in both instances, if that might be useful to know.


The fact that this happened with two different developers and two different films has me wondering if there might be some issue with the water stop bath step and the TF-4 fixer. However, I can't see how that would be a problem, based on the reviews of TF-4 that I've seen on here. My basement is consistently around 66-68 degrees F, so chemicals and water temps stick around that point, until mid-summer or so. Maybe I'm wrong, but I wouldn't expect the use of softened water to cause a catastrophic image loss.


This is pretty frustrating, since I can't point to a specific cause. What am I overlooking here?


Thanks for any feedback,


Ed

No edge markings, or no dark leader section (on 35mm), means that the film wasn't developed. I'd use distilled water from the grocery store to mix with your developer, instead of your suspect softened tap water.

You can check your developer with a piece of 35mm film clipped off from a roll leader. This will be exposed already, so just dip it in some developer and see if it turns black within a few minutes. If nothing happens, then you know the developer is bad. You don't need to do this in a darkroom, or with any special equipment. Just a small dish with some developer, and a piece of exposed film.

That "purple" is normal with T-MAX. The problem appears to be the developer. Try the test below as mentioned. You won't be the first person in the world to mess up the developer. It's unlikely to be "bad".

You might try testing your Xtol using one of the test methods. If your are using a Jobo with lift I would make sure the fluid isn't coming out the wrong hole.. this can be switched in most models from the top (usually for Expert drums) or lower hole (for all others). What solution volume are you using, is it sufficient to cover the film?

The most common cause of complete developer failure is fixing before developing. The purple tinge of the first solution gives some credence to the mix-up. We all think '"it can't happen to me," but it happens to all of us.

Check the smell of your developer - it may be fixer. I'm not saying that I did that once but I've heard that it can happen. :cool:

Brian

Thanks to all for the replies. Took a day or two in order to get a second session underway. As a bit of clarification, I am using a Stark manual processor with the Jobo tanks. Unfortunately, I don't have a Jobo processor. I used the Jobo tank chemical recommendations plus 10-15% to ensure that there were no shortfalls in the necessary chemistry.

I took a roll of FP-4 120 film and quickly took some photos of neighboring houses, using an EI of 80. 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. I then processed the remainder of the roll in some HC-110 Dilution G. This time I remembered to go ahead and use distilled water in mixing things up. I did have to mix up some additional TF-4, but got distracted and used tap water rather than distilled. After the final wash, I opened things up and saw that the processed film was once again transparent. There are very faint hints that this film had been exposed, but to see that really takes some examination under strong lighting.

A few additional thoughts and considerations here - I know that I should have used distilled water when coming up with the stock fixer solution, but I find it hard to believe that this would have caused this kind of drastic problem. I can see some sort of interaction between softened water and the Xtol. For the HC-110, I had thought that the life of an unopened bottle of the syrup would be virtually indefinite. That said, this bottle of HC-110 is likely in excess of 20 years old. What's the possibility that we have two separate problems between Xtol reacting with softened water, and HC-110 being sufficiently old that oxidation has taken place? As an aside, when mixing another batch of the TF-4 stock solution, I wound up emptying the bottle. When I rinsed out the bottle, there was a decent amount of undissolved solids that came out. I would expect that this means that the stock fixer solution would be less effective that what would otherwise be the case. I don't expect that this would impact the images on the film, but I could certainly be wrong.

At any rate, those are the results. I am going to order some additional chemistry. The only developer that I have left would be some Rodinal, and this stuff is even older than the HC-110. I know that this is supposed to have excellent shelf life, but I am getting a bit apprehensive at this point. I know that Kodak Alaris made some changes in HC-110, but after checking some of the posts here, I am not entirely certain about how the new chemistry compares with the old. I'm getting a bit concerned about all of this, since I don't want to put good images at risk due to film development mistakes.

Thanks,

Ed

Hmmm

I processed 4 films yesterday, one at a time, all nearly clear, same chems mixed twice, film very fresh Arista 100 4X5

Rodinol, water stop, TF-5 which has never failed me

Next change everything and use a known lens/shutter



I blamed my Pinhole

XTOL should not have problems with softened water, unless there is something seriously wrong with that water. Sounds like the HC-110 has simply become too weak due to progressive oxidation over many years, which is not surprising.

I think that’s all to the story. Water quality is typically a red herring when it comes to commercially packaged developers. Similarly, soft/hard water wouldn’t cause TF-4 or any other fixer to not fix.

Are all the negatives from the same camera/shutter?