Topic: Yikes!! What happened to my film???

[Kai-san]

Yesterday I picked up a Kodak T-Max 400 / 120 film from the lab, and this is what I got!    Any good ideas as to what has happened here? Parts of the film seem to have been developed (almost) normally, but apart from these two "pictures" the rest of the film was blank. The expiry date for this film is 08/2016, so there should be no problem.
Has anybody encountered anything similar?

[moominsean]

looks like an error on their part. either tons of air bubbles or the film wasn't even submerged in the developer all the way.

[Francois]

Does look like the film wasn't in the chemicals completely...
The blue part is the emulsion itself. Bubbles are from foaming chemicals.

Looking at the shoddy job they did, it would be simpler to just get a tank and some chems and DIY.
At least when you do the process you only have yourself to blame for mistakes...

[tkmedia]

looks like the part that did develop on the last strip was developed entirely in bubbles.

[Photo_Utopia]

It is a processing fault, speak to the lab they owe you a film and an explanation. Nothing you could have done could cause this. The bubbles are at the top of the developing solution so I think they are using a roller transport or less likely a dip and dunk
They need to give you your money back and a new film.

[ManuelL]

Things like this were the reason I started delveloping B&W film myself. I got back films that were full of scratches or even crumpled or torn.

[Terry]

Wow, this is incredibly shoddy lab work.  How do you pull this out of the tank and not notice that you've totally messed it up?  Never use this lab again!

[Kai-san]

Thanks all for the feedback! I must say I'm quite surprised as this lab has been rather good. It's a local shop, one of the few remaining which I am trying to support. I think it's nice to have a local store, but of cause their business is 99% digital as are all remaining stores these days.
And yes, I get the message: process your own film!    In fact I've got much of the kit needed from earlier days, so I need to give it a thought. All I need is 8 days a week.....
Hey! Wasn't that a song.......??   

[Terry]

Once you hit your stride with home developing, it needn't take up a lot of time.  You can do other things at the same time.  If you do stand or semi-stand development you can do lots of other things while the film is in the soup.  I understand your desire to support the lab; my local lab just announced that they are stopping c-41 (having stopped e-6 a couple of years ago).  Apparently my business and the others who continued to shoot film wasn't enough to make it profitable.  Like your lab, the quality of their work was beginning to slip too.

[Kai-san]

I talked to the lab today, it seems that their processing machine had a breakdown. The guy in charge is on holiday, so I will check with them after Easter. There should be no problem getting the film replaced, they are a straight bunch who never tries to hide their mistakes.
Terry, the stand development sounds like a very good idea (for a lazy bugger like me), I've seen that some of our fellow wasters are achieving very good results with this technique. Can it be used for all types of B&W films / developers? I have a Paterson tank with spiral reels, is that any good? Are there any web sites / litterature where I can read up on the subject?

[Bryan]

I talked to the lab today, it seems that their processing machine had a breakdown. The guy in charge is on holiday, so I will check with them after Easter. There should be no problem getting the film replaced, they are a straight bunch who never tries to hide their mistakes.
Terry, the stand development sounds like a very good idea (for a lazy bugger like me), I've seen that some of our fellow wasters are achieving very good results with this technique. Can it be used for all types of B&W films / developers? I have a Paterson tank with spiral reels, is that any good? Are there any web sites / litterature where I can read up on the subject?

Kai, you can develop anything as black and white with Rodinal stand development.  I just did a roll of Kodacolor-X that was shot in the mid 1960's and got pretty good results.  It's easy, even I can do it and your Paterson tank will work.  The link below is probably the best tutorial on it that I have seen.

http://jbhildebrand.com/2011/tutorials/workflow-tutorial-2-stand-development-with-rodinal/

[Terry]

I agree--I've used that article too and I like his approach and explanations.  A lot of people here seem to like semi-stand for the reasons cited in the article.  Though a friend who first got me to try stand developing gave me this instruction: one minute of inversions, three sharp raps on the table top and go watch a movie. 

[Indofunk]

Even "lie down" development works!

[Kai-san]

Thanks for the link Bryan, it explains things quite nicely. The only thing is that I do quite a bit of medium format, and I found his answers regarding developer volume for that slightly vague, anybody with experience on this?
Then there are the inversions starting the process, he says to begin with 10 inversions; are they successive? Because in one of the picture texts he says he started with one inversion per minute for the first 10 minutes. Slightly confusing, or maybe it doesn't matter?
I have to admit that my gut reaction when I read the name Rodinal was: Large GRAIN. Maybe this is different with stand development, what are your experiences? I noticed that he says that the colder the mix the finer the grain.
By the way I just checked my tank, it is meant to hold two 35mm reels. But when I poured 707ml of water into it, it flowed over the top. He does in fact mention the exact tank that I have and says that it will be ok with two 35mm films, so I guess there is a bit of leeway here. I expect I will have to do some experimenting, and anyway a new tank is not all that expensive unless you go for the stainless variety.

[Bryan]

I have found that as long as you mix it 1-100 the total amount doesn't matter.  I have a tank that I wasn't sure of the volume on so I mixed about 600ml and filled it until it was full.  I use a Paterson 2 reel tank for my 35mm and 4x5 film.  For one roll of 35mm I use 350ml, for two sheets of 4x5 I use 750ml.  I've done a 6-750 mix for two 4x5 sheets and it worked great.  For medium format I use a stainless steel reel and tank, I think it takes about 400ml to cover the negative. 

I use cold tap water to develop and our tap water gets quite cold in the winter.  I do a water stop with 68F water then fix at 68F.  A few examples, first two are 35mm and the last is 120.

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