Hi guys,

I recently had an extremely experienced friend process a batch of a 8x10 FP4+ for me in trays, 4 at a time. We used PMK developer, which he has never experimented with before as he long ago settled on T-Max with RS developer. We have noticed a good number of negatives have finger smudge marks on them from where he gently pressed the film down with the pads of his fingers to submerge them during development. They are obviously most evident in areas of flat tone, and there is generally only one per negative indicating it's happening either during the presoak or on initial introduction to the PMK developer. There was a 3 min pre-soak of all film. He's never experienced this in many thousands of sheets processed in RS developer, and I'm wondering if the staining developers are far more fussy in this regard?

Thanks,

Tim