If you are drying in the bathroom as I have done, leave the fan OFF. It took little while to figure it was sucking dust into the room, making the white spots, I agree changing bag is a good source for specks on loading. when you open the bag air and everything in it will rush in. Stop using stop bath for film. Just use a 1 min water bath. I have been dunking film since 1970, I know some will disagree with me, my negs disagree with you. Less chance on having pinholes is the payoff.
That should be easy, there is no fan! Life by the beach in sunny Southern California ;-)
I've already gone over my changing bag and will clean all holders as well as inside the bellows, just in case.
No stop bath? Really? How does stop create pinholes?
Originally Posted by John Berry
Last edited by 6x6TLL; 18-Apr-2020 at 20:18.
I've bee told that an acid stop bath can rupture carbonate bubbles on the film surface, resulting in clear pinholes.
The dust that blows around here in LA tends to be lightweight (as dust goes) and moves around easily... Other places are different, such as NYC that had heavy, gritty dust that flew around less...
Another issue is lint (that flies around easily)... Paper products for the home have a lot of it, so if you use a bathroom for loading or lab, that toilet paper roll will leave lint on nearby surfaces...
Clothes are another major source of lint (and some worse that others)... Your nice wool sweater or jacket lining can be a source... And pockets tend to be a fuzz farm... (I had a malfunctioning clothes dryer causing excessive lint on my clothes that was causing problems in the lab until I tracked it down to what I was wearing...
Pinholes from stop baths usually come from possible interaction of alkaline compounds in film that can be turned into a gas bubble in the presence of an acid, sometimes causing a blowout (pinhole) on some softer emulsions...
Steve K
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