The modernity look of the re-enactors might be other factors: re-enactors too old, not starved enough looking to be soldiers, glasses too modern. Taking lens too modern a design? And, maybe the spectral sensitivity of the Blue film is too far into the green to look like wet plate.
I'm using a Jobo tank with 4509n reel. I've used it with and without the fins. While going without them seems to make this effect worse, it still occurs when I use them. It's always rotary dev on a Cibachrome roller. The weirdest thing is that I do not get this uneven development on the normal film I've developed in the tank. I've done Fomapan 100 with it and never had any issues like this.
Xray is a lot more sensitive to uneven development, I find. I had grossly uneven development with the same reel on a Jobo CPE2 when I set it to its faster rotation speed. The lower speed (about 30rpm I think) works fine. Maybe your roller base is a little fast? Btw, I don't use any fins in this tank any and get even development now, so it's probably not necessary.
Hm! That I had not thought of. Rotation may be too fast. It's a cheap rotor, so I don't think I can change speeds. Maybe I'll just try standing dev. Not sure how suited the tanks are for it.
Stand development sounds like a pretty sure fire way to get even more uneven development with this film, but you don't know until you've tried it! I'll keep following your experiments with great interest.
"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig."
seezee at Mercury Photo Bureau
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I'm suprised at that, seezee! But it's reassuring to hear.
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