What's wrong with my negatives...

[Jim Michael]

The odd thing I find about your fogging is the apparent uniformity. The developer concentration would seem to be an unlikely culprit since low concentration in your unexposed film test should result in less density. On your next test you could clip a portion and run it through fix only in order to verify lack of density in the film base, as Stephane suggested.

[Jan Pedersen]

Did you use the same lens on all exposures in question? This could also be severe under exposure. Could it be your lens shutter?

[jdaivpmed]

Jan,

No, the example film shown in my images were just "waste" sheets that I was using for testing so there wasn't supposed to be anything on them. The same fogging is however evident on the margins of my exposed negatives.

Thanks,

John IV

[Sirius Glass]

The same fogging is however evident on the margins of my exposed negatives.

That eliminates a camera problem. That leaves: film handling, film storage, and film development.

Steve

[brad martin]

I'd drop the tent. One little pinhole in the top of it would illuminate your film beautifully.

Process film in darkroom and compare. If you don't have a darkroom seal off bathroom at night - truly dark.

Like others have said - the uniformity of the fogging makes handling first suspect.

[Darin Boville]

It doesn't look like regular density in the neg to me. In the picts it looks like some sort of chemical damage.

--Darin

[jdaivpmed]

Good Afternoon All,

Well, I don't feel like I'm making much progress here. In an effort to narrow down the possible causes of the "fog" I decided soak a sheet of film in fixer to see if the problem remained or disappeared. Somewhat to my surprise it remained. This tells me that the problem is either 1. the film itself, 2. the fixer, 3. the hardener in the fixer or 4. the water I'm using to make the fixer solution.

My next test was to mix a fresh batch of fixer and dunk another sheet of film into it. This time I left the hardener out just to take that variable out of the equation. No joy, same fog as before.

I then decided that perhaps the film was the issue so I tried the same test on two different brands of film. Same results both times, although one did come out a little clearer than the other (this was ortho/litho film) both were still fogged.

I next mixed another batch of fixer using distilled water (previous batches were mixed with filtered tap water). I repeated the test and the result was the same as before.

I decided that perhaps I had gotten a bad batch of fixer (Kodak Rapid Fixer) so I went to the local camera store and bought another bottle which was several months newer than the bottles I had used out of my own supply. I repeated the test with no change in the results.

While I was at the camera shop I went ahead and picked up a bottle of Ilford fixer thinking that perhaps there was some chemical incompatibility between the film and the fixer. I mixed a batch of the Ilford, repeated the test and again found no change.

At this point I'm at a loss. I think I've manipulated every possible variable in this equation such that all have been eliminated and yet the end result is always the same.

Upon closer inspection of the "fog" I have to say that it almost looks like film grain, tiny granular particles that are only visible using a loupe. Could that be what I'm looking at here? I thought that if the film hadn't been developed there wouldn't be any grain left on the negative base.

Again, I'm open to any thoughts or suggestions.

Thanks,

John IV

PS. I forgot to mention that at one point in my testing I decided that perhaps there was a problem with fixing for a full ten minutes so I reran the test by doubling the amount of time it took for the film to clear (about two or three minutes) and then pulled and rinsed it. You guessed it... it didn't make a bit of difference in the end result.

[Bruce Watson]

Is this "fog" nice and uniform? Corner to corner?

If it is, it might not be fog at all -- but retouching base. Made for the use of retouching pencils. Tri-X for example never looks completely clear because of this.

Not to worry if that's what it is. The uniform gray is easy to "read through" whether printing in the darkroom or scanning. It's a feature, not a bug.

If that's what it is.

[jdaivpmed]

Good Evening Brad,

Yes, it is 100% uniform and I suspect you may be right about what it is, I've just never noticed it being this pronounced (see photos at start of thread).

Thanks,

John IV

[evan clarke]

What are the other films?..EC