Development problem, had been the fixer outdated or too little?

[Light Guru]

Definitely NOT an fixer issue.

The first two slides came out perfectly fine

Please note those are not slides they are negatives. Slides have a positive image.

There should have been enough emulsion in the tank.

Do you mean there should have been enough developer in the tank? Emulsion is on film.

[koraks]

Maybe you removed the darkslide before closing the shutter on those black/vastly overexposed sheets. Or perhaps you planned on shooting at a small aperture but forgot to stop down after focusing and before making the shot. Either way, the problem is massive overexposure, likely by more than 6 stops.

[Doremus Scudder]

Definitely not a processing problem. You have a couple other issues, however. I'll go through your negatives in the order you posted them.

1. Nice exposure, edges are clear except for the bottom (top of the filmholder), which has some fogging on the edge, likely from the light trap in the holder. Try to keep the light trap covered when shooting.

2. NLooks good. Notice that the rebate is very small at the bottom of the image (top of the holder), which means the neg is sliding down in the holder a bit before exposure. Not a big problem, but make sure you have the film all the way into the holder when loading and close the flap (which has a raised area to hold the film in the right position in the holder. Some holders, however do allow the film to slide down a bit; you may just have some of those.

3. Film rebates are clear (so definitely no fixer problem) but the highlights (less-dense areas) in the neg look a bit fogged, which points to a possible light leak. This could just be overexposure of a flat scene, but look for pinholes in your bellows near the front as well as holes in your lensboard, etc.

4. (Next post) Note that the borders of the image are skewed. This is a mis-load. You missed getting the film under the guide rails when loading the film allowing one side to stick forward. I'll bet you had a problem reinserting the darkslide on this shot. I still mis-load a holder occasionally, but I'm down to hardly ever now. After inserting the film into the holder all the way and before closing the flap, lift up on both corners of the film gently to make sure both sides are under the guide rails.
You've got the same expoure problem here as #3 above.

5. Bad mis-load and light-struck, possibly from pulling the back away from the camera when wrestling the darkslide back in, since the film was likely in the way. In any case, the rebates are fogged, meaning the film was not in the holder correctly or the fogging occurred outside the camera. I'm seeing a skewed rebate, however, which points me to mis-loading holders.

6. The film rebate is straight, so the film was correctly loaded. However there is no image I can see due to fogging. So, the film got heavily fogged in-camera somehow. Not stopping down or forgetting to close the preview lever before pulling the darkslide can cause this, as can pinholes in the bellows or lensboard or pulling the back away from the camera body when pulling the darkslide.

Conclusions, you have more than one problem here. The film was mis-loaded in three of the cases. The fogging, however, may not be related to this. I'd be checking for light leaks to be sure in bellows and lensboard as well as making sure the camera back seats well (easy to do; dark room and bare-bulb flashlight inside the camera). Also, you may be pulling the back away from the camera when pulling/inserting the darkslide. Pinch the spring back to the camera body with one hand while pulling/inserting the slide with the other to prevent this.

Good news: Your processing looks fine.

Best,

Doremus